Wicked
by Matayka
Summary: I saw the apocalypse happen with my own eyes. On that day, I was killed. However, I still walk the Earth, no longer a human. I don't know how or why this happened but I do know this, my love might still be out there and I must find her.
1. Prologue

I remember that fateful day. I was going about my day, thinking that it was going be like any other day. I was working as a kitchen hand when it happened. Fire rained down from the sky and giant red spikes grew out of the ground, on of them appearing right in front of me. I was about to run but another fireball crashed through the roof but this one landed beside me, sending me flying to a nearby wall.

My ears rang and my body ached all over. I coughed up blood, a sign of my imminent end. I struggled to open my eyes and I wish I never had. Right in front of me was a monstrous creature. It had the ugliest face I had ever seen but it was not a laughing matter, rather, the horrendousness of its visage only served to make me more fearful. It had jagged skin with black markings. It appeared to have what barely looked like wings. I say barely because they were very small and stunted. To top it all off, it had a sword. A large one.

Its eyes landed on me and I had never been more afraid in all of my life. It looked into my eyes and snickered. It took one step towards me. I tried to back up but my body was too damaged to move. I was forced to watch in agony as the monster took his damn time, trying to intimidate me, savoring my fear, as he walked step by step. He raised his blade but I couldn't look away. My eyes were glued to the tool that would end my existence. It swung down and by some miracle, I stayed conscious. I stayed conscious as I look at my own body but it was without its head. My head landed on my lap and I stared in shock, not being able to scream as my respiratory system was cut off, before I finally saw black.

That day, I didn't think I would get to witness the apocalypse. That day, I didn't think I would reach my life's end. That day, I didn't think I would wake up several days later with pale skin and a hole each in my chest and head.


	2. Apocalypse

I open my eyes. My eyelids feel unusually heavy. My vision is blurry for some reason. I blink my eyes several times to make my sight clearer. What greets me is a pale, rotting, shirtless, headless body with a red hole in its chest. I scream, this sight is horrific, it makes me want to vomit.

But… no sound comes out.

I try again but I still hear nothing. I don't feel any vibration coming from my chest. My eyes wander down and once again, I get met with a horrifying view.

My body is nowhere to be seen. Instead, my head is set on top of the body's lap. Instinctively, I try to scream again but it doesn't work. I try to take a few breaths to calm me down but having no lungs, I can't breathe either.

How is this happening? What happened to me? I close my eyes in concentration to try and recall. It finally comes to my head, the meteor, the monster, the blade, my execution. That's right, I'm dead. I got decapitated. But how am I still conscious? And where's my body? This can't be happening.

Yeah, that's right, this cannot possibly be happening. I must be dreaming. That's it, this is all just some silly dream that I must wake up from. Yeah, yeah, that's right. I close my eyes to get out of this sick dream. I open them again, expecting to see my ceiling, in my home, in the true reality. However, I get met with the same sight. I try again, this time concentrating harder and longer but again, my hopes are crushed. Why? Why can't I wake up? Just why!?

This is giving me a headache. Suddenly, one hand of the weird corpse goes up to where the head is supposed to be, frightening me. Wait, head? Did that corpse just do what I wanted to do? I imagine raising my other hand. I look at the hand and, indeed, it gets raised up. What is this? I imagine raising both my hands up in the air and the body does so. What is happening? Is this my body? Could I…?

I command the body to pick my head up and it does so. I urge it to turn my head around so I can get a good look at my surroundings. I'm in the kitchen at one of the restaurants I work at, or rather, I used to work at. The place is a complete mess. Most of the ceiling is gone and the whole place is littered with rubble. Those meteors really did a number on the place. I should walk.

I put my head down, twisting it around so I could look at the body. I move the body on all fours to start. I put one leg up so only one leg is kneeling. I pick my head up and stand up. Now we're talking. I take my head out of the kitchen and into the main room. Woah, the walls are mostly gone. This restaurant has been totalled. I see a house nearby. It's still standing. I should go inside to find something to put my head back on my shoulders.

I start to walk but I hear rough moaning nearby. I turn my body in that direction and see another horrifying sight. It looks humanoid. It has the same rotting body as I do but this has different pants on and a head on its shoulder. The head has the same rot as the rest of its body. Its eyes are grey with no pupils or irises, they look as dead as the rest of its body. Another feature is the hole in its head with the same red glow as the one in its chest. Is that what my face looks like?

There's no time to be wondering. I slowly walk to the house as to not make a sound. I don't want to alert it. I take one step, another, another, and another. I raise my foot to take another step but the rubble under the other crunches. Loudly. It jerks its head to my direction. I try to move away from it but I trip on large pieces of rubble, causing me to fall on my butt. I start to panic when it just ignores me and goes back to walking in its original direction of travel. What? Do I not look good enough to eat?

Oh yeah, that's right, I'm one of them. One of them…

I make my way back onto my feet and continue walking to the house. I walk up to the doorstep before tucking my head underneath my arm. I grab the doorknob and as soon as I open the door, another one of those things greet me. I instinctively scream bit again, no sound comes out. The corpse just goes out of the door, pushing me out of the way, and walks away. I step inside and looked around. This place is fairly untouched. I search around for the washroom and I find it soon after. I look at the mirror, which was surprisingly fairly clean, and, as I thought, my head looks like those creatures' heads. The only difference is that I have pale red eyes instead of grey. I really am not human anymore…

No time to be sad. I go back to the living room to hopefully find something. I see a nearby shelf but from the first glance alone, I see nothing useful. I go to the nearby cabinet to search it. I hold my head on top of my left hand so I could use the right one. One by one, I open the compartments up. Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. That was a waste of time. I turn around to see if there's anything more. I see something covered by a cloth. I walk up to it. I grab the cloth and pull it off. An explosion of dust occurs. I cover my nose and mouth so I don't breathe it in and have a coughing fit before remembering that I don't have lungs to breathe with.

It's a sewing machine. That must mean that there's a needle and some thread somewhere. I see a cabinet in the base of the machine. I pull it open and therein lie the materials I need. This is going to be painful but I need to use both my hands if I want to keep myself alive, er, undead.

I put my head down on the base's flat surface and turn it around to face me. I urge the body to take a needle and a spool of black thread. I take the thread and push the end into my mouth to wet it with my saliva only to realize that my mouth is drier than a desert. That's not gonna work. Oh well, this is gonna be harder than I thought. I put hold the thread and the needle in front of my face. I try to insert the thread into the hole but I fail. I try once more but I fail again. I try once more, once more, once more. Eight tries later, I still fail. I've never stitched before. Curse my inexperience. I try once more and finally, through some sheer luck, I finally get it inside. I tie a knot and get ready.

I grab my head with one hand and go back to the washroom mirror. I put my head on top of my neck stump and raise my chin. I close my eyes as I prepare myself for pain. I stick the needle inside the neck stump sticking out of my head but oddly, it's not painful. Not at all. I open my eyes, completely confused. I can still feel the needle sticking inside of me but it feels like I'm on anaesthetics. Oh yeah, I'm not alive anymore so it wouldn't make sense for me to still be able to feel pain. This makes things easier. I stick the needle in and out of my body until my head feels firmly on my shoulders.

I can breath again but I already know that I don't need air to survive. I should be able to speak again too. I open my mouth to say 'Aah' but to my surprise, nothing comes out again. What the hell!? Why!? My respiratory system is fixed so why is my voice still missing? Oh right, I only stitched my head back on, not heal it. I just put my throat next to the rest of my respiratory system. It allows me to breath but my vocal chords are still severed. That sucks so bad. Oh well, gotta live with it, I guess. I step out of the house. What the hell should I do next?

I might as well go home. Despite everything being destroyed to different extents, the buildings and roads are all still familiar. If I remember correctly, my house is only fifteen minutes away… if I was… riding my… motorcycle. Good thing I know a bunch of shortcuts that can only be taken on foot… but that still adds up to… twenty minutes. Damn. Well, I have nothing better to do.

I start my long and lonely trek by going into an alleyway. Due to the deterioration of the surrounding buildings, the path is covered in piles of concrete, steel, and glass. I climb up the initial pile but I feel something tugging at my leg. I look down and find that my leg was caught on a sharp piece of rusty steel. However, the scene is much less disturbing than how I feel. I feel no pain at all despite it looking painful. There's no blood dripping from the wound either. I know that I know this already but I really have turned into a monster. I remove my right leg from the metal and continue my journey. Strangely, the wound didn't give me a limp. I guess I can't complain.

I look around, sightseeing. These buildings, both familiar and not. I can barely recognize them but I know exactly what they are. This is going to apply for everything now. It's going to be weird. How will I live from now on? Is there any way of becoming human again?

Minutes pass as I walk. I hear moans ahead. I stop myself in my tracks to see what it is. It's another one of… another one of me, aimlessly walking around. That house behind it… I see… James…

I pat him, or rather, his corpse in the back as I pass by him. He was a very good friend of mine. He was the one who helped me find the job I was doing before… Well, before I died. Did I really? Considering all that has happened so far, I guess I did. I met him in college and we've been best friends ever since. He– Wait!

Was that even James in the first place? How long has it been since I died? My body hadn't rotten to dust when I got turned into… this, so it couldn't have been that long. However, this amount of change in the environment couldn't have happened in only a couple of years but who knows with all these monsters around. I must hurry home and find out.


	3. Vulgrim

I've been walking for close to an hour. This trip should've taken way less time. I started limping after some time. Even though I don't feel the pain, the hole in my leg is slowing me down. It feels like my leg will collapse on itself if I push it. I should've been more careful. I grab onto another huge pile of rubble to support myself while I for another few minutes. This walk is taking forever. I then see something in the distance. I get a bit closer and…

Damn it! The last thing I needed. Another pile of rubble in my way. I get as close to it as possible. If I could still talk, I would've been grumbling under my breath. This is way too steep to climb and there are not many places where I can put my foot down. This sucks so much. There's nowhere to go around, I'd have to go back for about ten minutes. If only I could just jump over this.

Having nothing better to do, I entertain the idea. I hop on my good foot a few times before bending my knees and jumping. I expected to only jump up several centimeters so I didn't think I'd be jumping fifteen meters in the air. I open my mouth to shout in surprise but without my voice, no sound gets out of my throat. I land on my bum. I didn't get to prepare to land because of my unexpected flight. I stand up and tend to my backside because of habit rather than pain. I look in front of me and my jaw almost drops to the floor.

It is indeed the apartment complex in which I lived but it's largely different from when I last saw it. It's split down the middle. The gap seems like a third of the entire building. My place is in the second floor. The ladders are on the sides. That means I can still go up there through conventional means. That jumping thing felt so wrong. It makes me feel… less human. I'm not even human anymore. Why am I like this?

I start my short trek towards the split building, still limping. I don't have anywhere to lean on so I walk slower to put as little pressure on the leg as possible. Why am I even limping? I don't even feel the pain. I walk normally again and…

Nothing. I was limping for nothing. Good thing nobody's around to see it or else I'd never live this down. As I walk into the building, I see a lot of festering corpses around. It must not have been that long since the apocalypse. Where are all those undead creatures? Did nobody get "resurrected" like I did? Does that means I have to prepare myself to see…

No. It's no use thinking about that. I'll find out shortly anyway. I walk towards the direction of the stairs but I see a symbol hanging from the ceiling. What is that? I've never seen it before. I see another one behind it. And another. And another. I follow the trail of hanging insignias through various rooms in the complex. Is there someone still alive? I eventually reach the last of them. I see nothing but a square carpet with the same insignia on it. That's it? That was a waste of time. Wait! The carpet looks pretty new. It seems untouched by the destruction. I walk towards it but before I could touch the fabric, it glowed. I cover my eyes to protect them. I wait a bit before uncovering them. I immediately fall down on my bum again.

A demon is now floating on top of the carpet.

"You look like one of those empty rotten husks filled with demonic energy but I smell a still-living soul in you," it, or rather, he uttered before sniffing the air, "Interesting."

The most noticeable features of the demon are the huge horns sticking out of his head. His head was covered with a hood decorated with some sort jewelry. His upper body is naked save for a part of his hood with an eye-like medal on it, leaving his emaciated frame exposed to the world. He has small deformed wings on his back covered in bandages. In contrast, his lower body was hidden underneath a piece of clothing with a few scrolls and some sort of container hanging from it and a belt that looks like his medal. His eyes do a poor job of hiding his ill intent. His has no lips, just sharp teeth.

"I am Vulgrim, a humble travelling merchant," he introduces himself, breaking the silence almost making me run away in fear, "What's your name?"

I can't speak, my vocal cords are still torn. Even of they weren't, I wouldn't be able to speak now due to fear of the unholy creature right in front of me. My mouth hangs wide open as I become too scared to even move.

"What? Cat got your tongue?" he mocks. I then see his eyes narrow. He's looking at my neck. How'd he notice that? I tried my best to find the thinnest thread with the color most similar to my skin. He then reaches out his hand. Lights appear over the extended limb and dance around before disappearing, revealing a small container with green liquid inside. He then tosses it to me saying, "Drink. Consider it a free sample."

Rather than catching it, the bottle just fell on my frozen body. I hesitate for a few seconds. Why is this demon giving me this? Is it poison? I look at him and see his eyes narrow at me again, only this time, it's a threat rather than an expression of curiosity. I quickly grab the bottle and with quivering hands, uncap it. My hands shake so much that a fifth of the liquid spills out of the container. I cautiously put it up to my mouth and pour the liquid down my throat. It's bitter. Very bitter. I cough and gag at the taste.

"What the hell was that!?" I ask him with a mix of anger and fear. The demon just smiles in silence, waiting for a reaction but I don't know what. Wait. Did I just talk? I put my fingers to my neck and feel around. I can't feel the wounds anymore. My head is truly on my shoulders again. I then look down at my leg to check on another wound. It's not there. "What the hell was that?" I repeat, more appreciative than mad.

"That was a healing potion," answers Vulgrim, "It heals all types of wounds and restores your vitality. Normally, I sell them at a high price but I can feel that you'd be a regular customer of mine. Not a bad first impression, don't you think?" Even though he did do me a favor, I can't help but feel that he has some ulterior motives. I can see it through his the way he smiles.

"... Thanks," I hesitantly say. Another silence occurs. He looks like he's waiting for something again. What does he want this time?

"I believe I asked for a name," he speaks with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"Elijah." I don't want to tell him my last name. It feels wrong just introducing myself to him. Besides, Vulgrim didn't give me his last name. Does he even have one?

"Well then, Elijah, I'll be looking forward to doing business with you," he tells me before chuckling darkly, "I can give you almost anything you want if you pay for it."

"I don't have any money," I bluntly inform him. How could I still have some cash on me after dying?

"I'm not interested in your human currency."

What? Not interested in money? Now I'm curious. "What do I have to pay you with then?"

"Nothing special," he grins, "I only need souls in return for my services."

"What!?"

He raises his hand again as what seems to be a gray pendant appears. He then tosses it to me and I catch it. I throw him a questioning look. What is this? Picking up on the question, he explains, "Since you don't seem like you know how to collect souls yourself, that will help you. Consider it another free sample from me."

I stare at the pedant before looking back at the one who gave it to me. "Why are you doing this?"

He chuckles darkly yet again. "I once met another one of you, a corpse with a living soul. He's quite the eccentric and I would love to see how you'll end up."

So he thinks I'll go insane? That's completely ridiculous. I roll my eyes before facing the direction of the miraculously intact staircase and walking. While on my way there, I hear the demon remarking, "I'll be looking forward to doing business with you." I look back to see him disappearing into the carpet. I then continue on my way.

As I go up the stairs, only one thought comes to mind. One name. Mari.

I step into my home, or at least what was once my home. To my surprise, it looks relatively untouched. It's covered in rubble and dust but there's no major destruction to the place. Even the windows are intact. Does that mean– I've gotta find out. Now.

I run around and check every nook and cranny of the house. Living room, not here. Kitchen, nowhere. Rooms, nada. Bathroom, no sign of her. She's not here. I don't see a corpse. Could she still be alive? I can't know for sure but there's a chance that she's somewhere out there in this world, waiting for me. I lean down at the kitchen counter and catch my breath.

I see in the corner of my eye something glimmering. Glimmering? I look at the window and see a tiny opening in the clouds where the sunlight came from. That's the first time I've seen the sun today. I look back at the shiny object and see a butcher knife. I quickly grab it and brush the rubble off. I run my thumb over the words engraved into it.

_Elijah & Marigold_

This was her gift to me on our 5th year of dating. I can still remember the happiness this simple item gave me. She knew I loved cooking so she tried to find the best knife she could possibly find and had our names engraved into it. I couldn't stop smiling and crying for ten minutes. I only had flowers to give her, her namesake, marigolds. She told me it was enough even though I didn't believe it was. I didn't use the knife for a few months to keep it in pristine condition but she convinced me to use it. She said it would lose its value as a knife if I didn't use it for its original purpose. She told me she got it for me so that I could keep thinking of her while I cook so that all the food I make will be filled with love. If only she knew I was already doing that. If only I had told her. I then see my reflection on the shining surface.

That's right, my appearance has changed. Even if I found her, she wouldn't recognize me, but she would definitely recognize the knife. How do I sheath this? Maybe that demon downstairs has something for me. I run outside towards the staircase but I stop dead in my tracks just before I took the first step down. I hear voices.

"Do you have my new power or not?" an unfamiliar voice lined with poorly hidden rage asks. Is it another demon? I hide behind a nearby pillar as I peek into the scene downstairs. It's another monster. It resembles… the one that took my life.

"I assure you I have what you need but you do not have enough souls to buy even the cheapest one."

At this remark, the other demon grabs Vulgrim by the scarf on his neck, raising him up in the air and slamming him against the wall. The angered demon growls lowly at Vulgrim, obviously trying to intimidate him. "Give it to me or else."

"Or else what?" Vulgrim confidently spits back, "Need I remind you I'm the only one in this doomed world who can give you what you want?"

The stranger roars and throws a fist at Vulgrim's head. I close my eyes so that I won't see a soon-to-be gruesome death. I hear the fist impacting and breaking the wall. I open my left eye a bit to take a peek but I see that the merchant is still alive. The raging demon punched the wall beside Vulgrim's head while said demon remains unfazed.

I should probably stay out of this if I wanna stay alive. I try to back out slowly but on the third step, I hear ceramic cracking under my foot. I look down and see a broken pot. My heart drops. Hopefully that thing down there didn't hear it.

"Did you hear something?" Damn it! All hope is lost! Wait, Vulgrim knows I'm here. There's no way he's gonna rat me out, right?

"Yes, I did." What the hell!? Too much for looking forward to doing business with me.

I then hear footsteps coming towards and up the staircase. Oh no. I feel my heart poundings against my chest. What do I do? What do I do? What. Do. I. Do!? Come on, think! Miraculously, an idea comes up in my moment of panic. I execute the plan just in time to see him finish climbing up the stairs. I walk around aimlessly, flopping my body parts around, trying to act like a zombie. Please buy it. Please buy it. Please buy it.

"Oh, it's just another one of these damned corpses." He bought it! Yes! I see him turn around back toward the staircase. I move to run away but before I can even try to do so, he turns back to me. "You know what? I need a little stress relief and a few souls after all that crap with that damned merchant. You'll do just fine." What!? Oh no.

I see him raise his weapon up before he swings it down at me with all of his might. He wasn't so subtle with his intentions so I saw the attack coming. I roll to the side to avoid being cut in half. However, I feel the blade slicing through the air just mere centimeters from my skin. My feet find their way on the ground again and my legs start shaking. I start to back away as the monster stares at the sword impaled into the floor. "What the…" it trails off. The demon takes a look at me and growls.

It grabs its weapon's hilt and pulls it out of the ground. He then takes another wild swing at me. I sidestep it and narrowly avoid getting my arm amputated. "What gives!?" the demon yells out. He then swings horizontally at my head but I duck under it. I should probably counterattack now. I pull back my armed hand and grab my knife's hilt with my other hand and swing with all I have. The knife embeds itself into the demon's side but I can tell it's nowhere near to finishing it off.

The monster staggers back as I pull the blade out. He drops the sword and puts its hands on its wound. "Why you…" it growls at me. Instead of picking up his sword, he decides to throw a punch at me. That decision surprises me. The unanticipated attack connects with my chest, sending me flying to the wall. I think that broke some ribs but I don't think it matters. I don't need to breathe anyway. However, the rest of my body feels numb. I can't move my fingers. Why is this happening?

The monster appears in front of my slouching body. It growls again before roaring and stomping at my chest, slamming my body into the ground. I feel a few more bones snapping. This should hurt but it doesn't. It then keeps stomping at me. Each stomp breaks my rotting body down even further. Each kick enlarges the crater beneath me. I'm taking the brunt of this brute's anger and there's nothing I can do. I still can't move my body.

The demon eventually gets tired. It takes a few huffs of breath before grabbing me by the neck and raising me to eye level. I would be kicking my feet and struggle to get away from the grip if it weren't for my uncooperative body. He squeezes my neck slowly as he darkly laughs. I hear a pop. Is this it? Is this how I die? Another pop. My eyes find their way to my knife on the ground. I didn't even get to see Mari. Is this my fate?

No! This can't be how it ends! If this is fate then screw it, I'm not leaving this world without finding Mari. I did not come back to life just to die in vain. My body finally responds as I put my hands on the arm holding me up. I growl and struggle with all my might. The monster's arm then starts emitting dark smoke from where I'm touching it. It lets go of my neck and reveals burn marks on its limb. He roars at be before charging. I roar back as I spread my arms to my sides and push them in the direction of the demon. An explosion occurs in front of my hands, sending the demon flying back downstairs with new scorch marks all over its body.

I pick my knife up and walk slowly towards the groaning creature on the ground. I laugh at the pitiful sight before me and kick its unsightly face. I then heat my knife up and cut its right arm cleanly off. The sound of his cries are satisfying. Very much so. I then cut off left foot and let it yell out even louder. This is fun. However, it's getting too loud. I slice its head off and this time, no cries are heard. A pity but it's necessary.

Wait, did I just… enjoy that?

"Bravo!" I hear someone clapping behind me, "Good show."

I then see wisps coming out from the demon's corpse. Are those souls? Why are so many of them coming out of just a single body? Were these souls collected by this creature? The wisps them come flying at me, more specifically, the pendant Vulgrim gave me. I then remember the liquid he made me drink earlier. I may need that if I don't wanna die again early.

"Do you have another bottle of that disgusting liquid?"

"I have as many healing potions as you can afford," he replies.

"I'll need just the one."

"As you wish."

A bottle of green liquid appears on his right hand. I grab it from him as he puts his other hand in front of the pendant and take out a few souls gor payment. He then puts the souls into his mouth and swallows. So that's why he demands souls as payment. I drink the product I just bought and struggle not to throw it back up. I can feel the broken bones piece themselves back together again. This magic is pretty useful.

"Anything else you might want to buy?" asks Vulgrim.

Nothing immediately comes to mind. What was that creature demanding from this merchant again? It doesn't matter. Not like I'll know how to use it. I look down at my knife and almost gasp at its condition. The blade has almost melted into a puddle. It's horribly misshapen and it no longer resembles a knife. Luckily, the engraving is still there.

I turn back to the demon and tell him, "I don't suppose you can repair this."

"Unfortunately not," he answers, making my heart drop. He them follows it up, "However, I do know a certain blacksmith who could."

"Tell me," I demand.

He then chuckles darkly. "Information is also something that I sell. Give me some more of your souls and I'll tell you."

I groan. I have to pay for something that can be a lie? I don't see any other choice. I grab the pendant and hold it out in front of me. He then grabs some more souls before consuming them.

He gives off a sigh of satisfaction before responding, "The blacksmith is a Maker by the name of Ulthane. You'll find him where the remaining humans might be hiding. As a former human yourself, you should know where that is."

"I didn't pay you to leave out a few important details."

"I assure you I only took what this information is worth away from you," he says while still keeping that devious smile. I hate this demon so much.

"Whatever," I remark before turning back start walking.

However, Vulgrim stops me before I could get ten steps in. "You might need this as well." He conjures up something that looks like a normal kitchen knife in a sheath. He then tosses it to me and I catch it. "That blade is imbued with magic to withstand the flames of hell. Take it as my thanks for the entertainment."

I elect to not respond to that remark or listen to whatever else he has to say and simply attach the sheath to my pants since it also works as a holster for the blade. I need to get my knife repaired as soon as possible then I can go and focus on my true task.

Mari, just wait for me.


	4. Ulthane

I have been walking and climbing and clambering over piles and piles of rubble for hours but weirdly, I don't feel any signs of fatigue. Wait. Not weirdly. I keep forgetting I'm already dead. It's annoying. Whenever I scratch myself, I have to remember that my skin peels off easily now and that my skin doesn't restore itself anymore. That healing potion can regenerate my wounds but it can't restore me to life. I wonder how it works on rotting corpses. Shouldn't it only work on the living?

Great, I'm asking pointless questions now. This trip has been peaceful so far. Oddly, I didn't run into any demons along the way. I don't know how I did that… fire thing, my knife has almost molten off its handle, and I don't trust Vulgrim enough to use his knife so I can't afford to get into any fights.

I've been told by Vulgrim that my kind is referred to as the Wicked. I am undead but apparently, I am not an Undead. They look like skeletons apparently. I didn't run into one yet so I can't be sure. The Wicked are basically zombies but they are zombified by demonic powers rather than a disease like in those zombie movies. They don't attack me but I bet they won't hesitate to kill, er, re-kill me if I tick them off.

I've been collecting souls along the way too. Not by killing other creatures though. Apparently, lost souls with no body tend to wander around and take residence in non-living objects. I just need to break those objects to lure the souls out and capture them in my amulet. Apparently, all living creatures can capture souls without any special items but I'm not exactly a living creature anymore so I have this trinket to help me.

Vulgrim once mentioned there was another one of me who's apparently insane. I don't know if it's because of the demonic essence in them or if they were originally insane or if it's both. I sure do hope it's the second one. I don't wanna lose my mind before I get to see Mari. Or after for that matter. Or during my meeting with her. I don't wanna lose my mind. Period.

Who was I searching for again? Damn, I'm getting so distracted. Oh right. A blacksmith. His name is Ulthane. Vulgrim told me he's a "Maker." He told me that their duty is to create… stuff. I didn't really pay attention. I stopped listening after I learned of his general location. I don't even know what he looks like. I don't even remember if Vulgrim told me how he looks like. Man, I should really start listening to important stuff no matter how much I hate the one telling the info to me.

Enough thinking. Better start keeping my eyes on the r—

"Have you seen any of those humans?" an inhuman voice asks. Dammit! It's a demon. Why did I have to jinx it? I lean my back against a nearby building to get out of sight of whatever was speaking.

"Not in this part of town," another responds to the question.

"I didn't see anyone either." Wait! There's three of them!? Just my luck.

"Let's just double-check this place and be done with it."

Oh no. That's my cue to hide. I peek through the dusty window of this building to see if I could find a hiding place there. There's one huge hole in the wall and I can see the three demons through it. Not safe. I look around to see if there's any buildings I could hide in.

Most of these buildings have large holes in them. That makes it easy to get inside the building but I'll also be a sitting duck. They'll definitely see me. I keep looking but I find nothing. I hear footsteps coming towards me direction. Time to run.

I see a roadblock across the street. I could hide behind it and keep out of sight but the downside is that I have to cross the street to get to it. Will I get seen? I'll get seen if I don't move. I take a deep useless breath to calm my unbeating heart down. On the count of three, I run.

One.

Two.

Two and a half...

… Two and three quarters…

… Two and four fifths!

Three!

I run across the street, jump over the roadblock, and duck. Hopefully nobody saw me.

"Did anyone hear that?"

Damn! Someone heard me. I was too careless. I'm gonna die! Wait, that means nobody saw me. There may be hope just yet.

"I'll check it out," volunteered a voice nearer to me.

Please don't come here, please don't come here, please don't come here.

I hear a particularly heavy stomp near the spot I was at just seconds ago, almost making me jump in shock. Almost. I'm determined to not die. He's trying to scare me out of my hiding spot. Not falling for it.

However, the stomps start getting closer to my location. Crap. Crap! CRAP! I'm gonna die. I'm really gonna die. I don't wanna die. Not yet. But I am. I am gonna die. I am so gonna die. Mari, if you're up there and I really really hope you're not, please guide me to where you are so we could be together for all of eternity.

While I'm ducking down, however, I hear the stomps going away from me and further into the street. Phew. That was lucky. I shouldn't rely on luck. If I don't wanna re-die that is. I peek out from behind the roadblock and see the demon near me with his back turned to me. That's great. Time for another hiding spot. There's a building right in front of me just behind this roadblock and luckily, there's a broken window in front of me. I slowly stand up, keeping my eyes on the demon. I then jump inside the building and roll to a stop.

I begin to run for it but a demon comes into my line of sight near the entrance and I immediately put my back against the wall. I hear heavy footsteps coming towards me. My heart should be beating fast and adrenaline should be pumping down my system. That would be very useful right now. Too bad I'm already dead. I see the demon coming through the entrance with its sword by its side. This is it. I'm dead. Again. I close my eyes and prepare for my second end…

… but nothing's coming.

…. Wait… What?

I open my eyes and see the demon walking in front of me but with its back turned. Did it not see me? Woah, how lucky is that!? This is my chance. I run outside to continue my escape but I run into something huge, sending me sprawling to the ground with an audible thud. I look up and see a demon staring down at me. Its hulking mass just standing before me, huffing in and out with impatience.

Yep. How lucky is that indeed.

The demon scoffs before spitting at my face. Gross! But I don't make a move to clean it up. I'm body won't listen to me. I'm frozen in fear. "You fools! It was just another one of these corpses!" it calls out to the other two demons.

… Again, what!?

Oh yeah, demon's don't really mind the Wicked. To them, we're just garbage not even worth their attention. In normal situations, I would be very offended but in this situation where I would've peed my pants if I still had the capability to as a demon with a huge sword is looking down at my defenseless body, I'm really REALLY glad that that's the case.

The demon walks away from me. I wait for several seconds for it to get to comfortable distance away from me. I wipe the spit off of my face and stand up. I see an alleyway nearby. I head to it to get away from those things. They might not think much of me but I don't wanna risk it. I take one last peek at the search party before going into the alleyway.

Then, I run into something else again. This time, however, the thing I ran into was the one sent sprawling to the ground. Is it another one of me? It seemed too small and light for a demon. I look down to see what I just hit.

It's a man and a woman.

Am I really seeing this right now? Is this really happening? Finally! Humans! Humans like me! I can almost jump in glee. I put on a smile and extend a hand to pull them up.

However, they flinch. I raise an eyebrow at the action. I try to step closer but they let out sounds of… sounds of fear. I can see tears forming in the woman's eyes and the man's face contorting into an expression showing his willingness to fight.

I immediately put my hands up to show them that I'm harmless. The man slowly stands up and helps the woman stand up as well, all while keeping his untrusting eyes on me. I open my mouth to talk to them but the man interrupts me.

"Get back, you monster!"

What!? Oh yeah. I forgot I was a Wicked for a second. How could I be so stupid!?

"Wait, hear me out," I say while stepping forward and putting a hand forward.

The woman shrieks and hides behind the man. The man, similarly steps back in fear. However, I could tell he's trying to put on a brave face in front of his lady. He clenches his right hand into a fist and throws a hook at my jaw. My head snaps back from the impact. I step back and put a hand to the hit area out of habit.

"I said go away, demon," he warns me, "I will not hesitate to kill you with my bare hands."

"No, let me ex—"

The man interrupts me again by throwing a right cross at my face. I saw it coming and moved my head to the side to dodge it. I grab his arm and push him in the direction of his punch. I only intended to push him off his balance but I send him flying into the wall, making him land on his back with his forehead bleeding.

The woman lets out a small sound of surprise. I turn my head towards her and see her eyes widen to the size of saucers. Her pupils are shaking so much. I put my palms in front of her and walk forward.

"It's okay, I'm—"

I get interrupted again. This time, by the woman screaming at the top of her lungs. I then remember the demons I just escaped from. I need to stop her before she attracts those things!

"Well, well, what do we have here?" Too late.

The woman's tears fall in hopelessness and fear. I look at the man and see an expression of pure terror. I see that he has peed his pants. I look back and see one of those ugly things with swords.

Then another one walks to his side.

Then the last one completes the set.

I just doomed us.

We're all going to die and it's all my fault. If only I just left, we wouldn't be in this situation. Why did I even insist on talking to them? Was I too attached to my humanity?

I see the demon raise its sword. I hear the screams of the man and woman behind me. I, however, can't. I'm not afraid as much as I am dispirited. This is it. I came back to life and everything just to die within a day. My second chance, and I completely blew it. I close my eyes and wait for my fate.

However, instead of the sound of steel cutting through bone, I hear flesh impacting with something blunt and heavy. I open my eyes and see a giant with spiky red hair and beard with a giant hammer. He lets out a huff of breath and lowers his stance.

What is this?

I can only stand in the sidelines as the new giant fights these things off. He blocks a downward swing with the handle of his hammer and pushes the demon away before slamming his weapon's head against his opponent, sending it flying.

He raises his weapon above his head just as another demon comes forward to face him. He slammed his weapon down but the demon barely blocks it without its legs collapsing under it. The giant raises his hammer again and slams it down. The demon manages to block again but I can tell it's exhausted and in pain. The giant repeats the process again. This time, the demon can't put up a defense and gets crushed underneath the giant weapon.

One of the remaining demons jumps and slashes at the giant redhead but he stands to the side and punches the demon in the face. While it's dazed, the newcomer swings its hammer at the demon to send it flying face first into the ground. Before it can get up, he slammed the giant weapon towards the demon's head and crushes its skull.

The last demon gets up. It charges and aims the tip of its sword at the giant's heart. The redhead simply swings his hammer and sends the demon flying back again. It slams into a wall, creating a crater, and falls down on its knees. The giant then swings its hammer again at the demon, sending it back to the crater, making it deeper. The demon doesn't fall down again, the crater now has a demon shaped hole just for it. The newcomer then swings its weapon once again and makes a hole in the wall. The blood on his weapon is proof of the demon's death.

Woah. He disposed of those things just like that. Must be fun being a hulking creature with guns like those. I bet nothing even comes close to threatening him. Maybe there's a potion that can increase my muscle mass. I should ask Vulgrim next time.

The giant then looks at the direction of the humans. Under his gaze, they audibly flinch. He sighs in relief before his eyes land on me. With me in his sights, his expression sours to that of the one he had when he was fighting those demons. Wait, does that mean…

He raises his huge weapon in the air. The humans behind me whimper in fear but he's not aiming for them, he's trying to kill me. He brings down the hammer to crush me. I jump forward to avoid the blow.

"Wait! I—"

I get silenced by a clean blow to the torso, sending me flying into the streets. I stand up, clutching my ribs. I don't feel the pain but I definitely felt quite a few bones break. I see him slowly walk towards me. There's no way he'll listen to me. I have to escape him somehow.

I look around to find an escape route but I see nothing but crumbling buildings. That's it! He can't carelessly swing his hammer if he doesn't wanna get crushed under the rubble. I quickly run into one of the buildings. I wait for a few seconds for him to come inside but he doesn't appear. I peek out the window to see where he is.

He's with the humans. He extends his hand to them and the man and woman put their hands in his. The humans then get covered up in light before disappearing. What? How'd they do that? How'd he do that? I snap out of my thoughts just in time to see him looking me straight in the eyes. Oh no.

I immediately back away and get behind one of the remaining pillars of the building. I hear a rapid succession of heavy stomps coming my way. I then hear him stop near the entrance. I put a hand above my mouth and nose to mask the sound of my breathing. Wait, why am I doing this? I'm dead, I can just not breathe.

I see his giant figure right beside me. I stiffen like a corpse during rigor mortis. I don't think he sees me. To my relief, I see his back. He really didn't see me. I prepare to sneak away but he spins around, swinging his hammer. He definitely saw me. I duck down under the blow and roll away in time to avoid the falling rubble from the pillar and the structure above it. Crap! He doesn't care about breaking the building. Why did I even think the rubble would affect him?

In the midst of my thoughts, I didn't notice the redhead pulling his hammer back for another swing. I see it coming straight for my face. That's going to knock my head off my shoulders. And after all that trouble I went through to put it back on. I put my hands in front of me in a futile attempt to stop it. I recognize this futility and close my eyes so I don't see my moment of death.

And again, no blow comes. I open my eyes to see fire coming out of my hands, keeping the hammer in place. My eyes go wide and I can see that the giant's eyes have widened in surprise as well. The hammer starts glowing red hot, forcing the giant to pull it back. I put my hands to my side again, making the flames go away.

"You," he growls at me, "Who are you and what's your connection with Wicked Killington?"

Killington? Is that the name of the guy Vulgrim mentioned?

I put my hands up. "I don't know who that is and I'm not someone who wants to cause trouble."

His stance doesn't change and neither does his expression. He still doesn't trust me. "Speak your intentions," he commands with a threat underlying his voice.

There's no use lying here. Not only is there no reason for it, it will also get me killed. "I'm here to find a blacksmith named Ulthane."

The giant's eyes narrow at me. "How do you know that name and what's your business with him?"

"I was told of him by a merchant named Vulgrim." His eyes show a glint of anger. Seems like he doesn't really like Vulgrim. Can't blame him, I don't like that shady demon either. I pull out my knife and show it to him. "I want him to fix this knife for me. It's important."

He looks at the knife but he stays looking on edge. "Why do you want that blade fixed?"

He thinks I'd use it to kill people. That's not entirely wrong. I am planning on using it against the weapon. However, I have a more important purpose for it. "I'm looking for my fiancé and this knife is the only way she'll recognize me in this state."

He visibly relaxes. Yes! I got through! Now to get him to tell me where this Ulthane is so I can get this thing fixed. Mari, I'm coming.

"What's your beloved's name?" he asks with a soft tone.

"Marigold. Marigold Johnson."

"I see," he lets out a breath, "I am Ulthane, the blacksmith you're looking for."

What? Really? How lucky is that?

He extends his hand to me. I think he's asking for the knife. I give it to him and he looks at it from every angle. He then gives it back and speaks, "Follow me."


	5. Haven

The journey to our destination took about an hour and a half. We were attacked several times on the way by Demons. Because Ulthane was with me, we were also targeted by the Wicked. While the Demons did go for the obviously smaller and weaker guy, A.K.A. me, the Wicked didn't attack me but I had to fight so I could gain the giant's wholehearted trust. After getting enough injuries to warrant another sip of that vile green liquid, we have finally arrived.

The city is ravaged by plant life. I can see wood and leaves everywhere. On the roads, on the buildings, everywhere. Ulthane leads me into a housing where he is met in the entrance with another giant. A female with blond hair in braids. She smiles at him before her eyes land on me. Her demeanor then turns hostile. She gets ready to charge at me and I get ready to run away for my "second life" until Ulthane raises a hand to stop her.

"He's a guest," he sternly tells her.

The woman hesitates but ultimately concedes. She steps back to allow us inside the housing. While we go inside, she keeps her eyes trained on me, waiting for me to do something wrong. Not the best reaction but I'll take what I can get. At least she's not actively trying to kill me.

He takes me to a room with an anvil. I look around me and see an entire function smithy. I guess this is where he does his work. With all the fire around me, I should feel hot but being dead makes you devoid of all feeling. Without even taking so much as a glance at me, he pulls out my knife, takes off the handle, and puts the blade inside the forge and heats it up. He then takes a hammer and a chisel before waiting for the blade to heat up. I wait silently as well, there's nothing I can do but watch anyway. He takes it out after some waiting. He then pounds it to shape while it's still glowing red hot before letting it cool.

"So, uh," I try to strike up a conversation. I can't take the silence, too peaceful, "I guess that hammer has more uses than just bludgeoning monsters to death."

Ulthane checks out a vat of some liquid first before replying, "I am a Maker, lad. Our purpose is to create and restore. Doesn't hurt to be able to fight too."

A question suddenly pops in my head. A question I should've asked earlier. "Maker? Is that like a race or something? I thought there were only humans, devils, and I assume there are angels as well."

The giant looks at me with… I can't read his expression but he's certainly not looking at me as if I'm stupid. Is he already used to this kind of questioning?

"Aye, the Makers are a race. One of the earliest ones to be created by the… well, the Creator. One of the Old Ones," he explains, "There are many races in Creation. Some are thriving like the Angels and Demons, some are extinct like the Ravaiim, and some are nearly there like the Nephilim and your people."

"I've never seen any of those other races before. Were they hiding among us humans before the apocalypse?" That would be creepy. To think that people like that who could kill us within a blink of an eye could've been hiding in plain sight.

"No," he responds as he grabs his chisel and starts engraving my and Marigold's name onto the blade, "For almost every race, there is a realm. The biggest ones being the three kingdoms: Heaven, Hell, and Earth. As you might already know, Angels live in Heaven, Demons live in Hell, and you people live here."

Something about that doesn't sit right with me. "If every race has a realm of their own, then why did they decide to invade ours?"

Ulthane finishes his engraving off and puts the knife back in the forge. He then faces me once more. "Because," he pauses, taking a deep breath, "The seventh seal was broken and the apocalypse happened as prophesied."

He closes his eyes and shakes his head. I open my mouth to ask more questions but then I see the look on his face. It's one of pure guilt. But… why? What did he do to feel guilty? I close my mouth and wait in silence once more. I don't want to get on his bad side in his home field.

After a few minutes, he pulls the blade out with a pair of thongs and dips it into the vat of liquid. He then pulls it out and puts it back on the table. He inspects it one last time before assembling the somehow undamaged handle back onto the blade. I walk up to him and he hands me the knife.

"Can this survive my powers now?" I really need a weapon that can survive a fight.

"That's not what you asked for."

What? What kind of excuse is that? He should know full well what I need.

"But–"

"Besides," he interrupts, "I don't want to turn a symbol of love into a tool of murder."

I calm down right then and there. He's right. This knife is precious to me. This was a gift from Mari, my one and only love. How could I have thought that using it as a weapon was acceptable? I stare at the engraving on the blade. I'm sorry Mari. I will not let blood stain our memories.

I pull out the knife that Vulgrim gave me. I haven't actually inspected this before. I now see that this actually looks like a cross between a kitchen knife and a hunting knife. The blade glows red on the edges. Must be a sign of magic. The end of the handle houses a single round red gem. I turn to Ulthane and see him already expecting something.

"Can you upgrade this instead?"

I hand him the knife and he takes it. He lifts it into the air and inspects it from every angle like how he inspected my knife. He gives it a few swings before putting the whole thing in the forge without removing the handle.

Wait. Won't that break the knife? I probably shouldn't question it. He is a pro blacksmith. He probably knows more about blacksmithing than I do about anything. He knows what he's doing.

He pulls it out with a pair of thongs and my jaw drops at what I see. The handle was undamaged and the blade wasn't even glowing red from the heat. He puts the knife on the table with the blade hanging out from the edge. He weighs down the handle with a large piece of metal with his hand on top before grabbing a relatively small hammer. Small relative to his huge hands, that is. I close my eyes and cover my ears. I know what happens next.

A loud bang echoes throughout the room. I open my eyes and they widen at the sight. The blade didn't even bend. The hammer is just resting on top of the blade. Damn. What exactly did Vulgrim give me for free? How much does he normally sell it for?

Ulthane walks back to me with the knife in hand. "I don't think you'll be needing it. This thing can withstand just about anything." He then eyes me suspiciously. "Where'd you get something this strong, lad?"

I put my hands in the air out of instinct. "I, uh, I got it from Vulgrim."

His eyes narrow. "Vulgrim? You did business with that demon?"

This is bad. Really bad. If I lose his trust now… well, I don't know what will happen and I am definitely not planning on finding out.

"I didn't. He gave it to me for free out of the blue. I didn't ask for it." Please don't kill me.

Fortunately, his stance relaxes as he breathes out a sigh. "A piece of advice. Stay away from him. He's bad news."

He then hands me the knife. I put it back in its sheath. I grab my own knife and put it… oh, right. I don't have a sheath for this. I look back at Ulthane. He immediately realizes my plight. He silently asks for the knife and I give it to him. He looks inside his storage for materials and pulls out some leather. He takes measurements of my knife and quickly fashions a sheath for it. That was fast. I should come back here once in a while. He can definitely help me with weapon problems.

He gives me the sheath along with the knife and I attach it to my pants opposite of the other knife. I should make sure that I don't grab the wrong knife by accident during battle. I can't return to this place when I'm far enough away.

"How many souls do I have to pay you?"

He doesn't respond. He only stares at me for a few seconds. I try not to crumble under his gaze. The look on his face is making my knees weak.

"Come with me," the giant commands before walking to another room.

I sigh and follow him through different parts of the housing before going outside. We then head into another building and walk into a large room. I gawk in surprise. Not because of the size or the room itself. There are humans here. Real breathing humans and quite a few of them. They smile at the arrival of Ulthane. However, one of them, a man, spots me following behind him. He gasps and points towards me, prompting the others to look. They all cower in fear of me. I put my hands in the air and attempt to explain but Ulthane beats me to it.

"It is fine," he announces with a loud voice, "He's a friend."

They stop talking amongst themselves but they still keep their fearful gazes trained on me. I shouldn't speak to any of them. I'll only make them even more agitated. I look around the room and see one man with no fear in his eyes. He's a dark skinned man with a full beard. He is wearing an orange coat with an orange hood over his head. He keeps eye contact with me for a few seconds before walking away. I hold back the urge to chase after him and explain to him that I am one of them. Chasing him will only scare off the others.

I face the giant and ask, "Why did you bring me here?" Could it be… "Is Mari already here with you."

He lets out a small sigh. "As you can see, this place is a home for all the humans who are lost in this world. We call it Haven. We try to find as many as we can but with our numbers, it's hard to find as many as we had hoped," he explains to me.

Wait. Does that mean that Mari isn't here? Then why is he saying this to me? Could it be…

"Do I have to help you find more people for you along with Mari as payment?"

A look of surprise flashes on his face before quickly disappearing. "Aye."

He then pulls something out of his pockets and shows it to me. The stone roughly round in shape. Its edges are gold in color and the center circle looks like normal rock. It also has a glowing blue symbol in the middle.

"This is a Bridge Stone," he starts, "One touch from a human and it will transport them here."

I don't need a lot of explaining. I saw it being used just a few hours ago. I take the stone off of his hands. But wait. This stone is his, isn't it?

"Are you not going back out there?"

He initially looks incredulously at me before realizing what I meant. He then lets out a small laugh. "I have many spares. You don't need to worry about stealing anyone's job."

"Spares? Do you lose these stones frequently or do you go around recruiting people to do this?"

"The only people who have these right now are the Makers. There's no one else we could trust but we can't all go out there so we take turns searching different areas." He then scratches his beard and looks into the distance in thought. "There is one more person who I've given this stone to. Your paths will likely not meet, however, I still pray that you never meet her and you should too."

"Huh? Why?" That's ominous. Too ominous for my tastes.

"If you've ever heard of the Horsemen, you would know how dangerous they are, especially to someone like you," he responded.

"Horsemen? You mean the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?"

"Aye, those Horsemen."

He tells me nothing else. I never read the Bible but I know a little bit about the Horsemen. I already found out the Angels and Demons are real. I didn't expect the Horseman to be real as well. What's next? Is someone going to tell me that the Garden of Eden is real as well?

I have just about everything I need for this journey. Everything except one thing. Directions.

"Do you know where Mari might be?"

Ulthane shakes his head. "No." He then lets out yet another sigh. "But I might know someone who might be able to give you a clue."

Any starting point is a good starting point given the situation. "Who is it?"

His expression suddenly darkens. He hesitates before uttering one name, "Vulgrim."

"What!? But I thought you told me to stay away from him."

"I did but there is no other choice," he pauses to take a deep breath before continuing, "He has more knowledge of the Earth right now than most. He might be up to no good but he's invaluable when it comes to information."

I take a deep breath to calm down as well. He's right. I might not like it but he's right. Why does he have to be right?

"So you're telling me to go back to the direction from which I came and walk for hours on end to meet this shady guy who I really don't want to see again?"

Ulthane lets out a dark chuckle. "Not necessarily, lad. That demon has set up shops all over the world. You can look for his symbol and follow them to him."

Oh, so that's why there were symbols hanging all around Vulgrim's shop. That makes it slightly easier. Now I'm ready to go.

"Where do I start?"

"We haven't sent anyone to the west of here. You can go there and bring us some of your people while looking for that demon," he instructs.

"That's all I needed. Bye," I wave as I walk to the exit.

"Safe travels," he waves back.


	6. Camael I

"Stay away from us, you monster!"

"Not this again…"

After nearly an hour of thankfully safe travelling, I finally found the first of my rescues and it's a family of four to boot. However, I keep forgetting that I'm not one of them anymore. I walked up behind them and patted the father's back to say hi. The moment they turned around, the baby cried out loud and so did the baby's teenage sister and mother. Out of instinct, the father immediately punched right on the jaw. The hook almost dislocated it but it didn't hurt. He immediately stepped back and put up his arm in front of his family in an attempt to protect them from me, leading to the current situation.

I take out the Bridge Stone and show it to them. "Look, I'm on your side. Touch this rock and it will take you somewhere safe."

The man looks around the ground. I think he's trying to find something. He then picks up a metal pipe lying near him. "I said stay back! You might be able to talk but there's no way I'm trusting whatever lie that comes out of a Demon's mouth."

That… That actually hurts. Being looked at like I'm a mindless killing machine bybthe people at Haven stung a bit but being told that to the face just hurts. I thought I had already accepted my new monstrous form but… being called a monster by someone who I used to consider to be one of my own just… I should stop thinking about this. The longer I'm hung up on this, the more chances we have of being found by demons.

I try to step closer to them but the father immediately swings the pipe at me, forcing me to step back. I should try to talk thus out with him before trying anything but… The look in his eyes… He's afraid.

I toss the rock at his feet. "Okay, I'll stay away but please touch the rock, it will take you to safety."

The man growls and kicks the stone back at me. It hits my just above my chest hole. I catch it as it bounces off. I look back at the family. The man looks even more angered and the rest hasn't calmed down, not even a bit.

"Like hell am I trusting you! Your kind took away my son and my father. I have no reason to believe you won't take away even more."

That's it, huh? I'm being lumped in with those monsters. I was a victim of the demons too. Why am I being accused of being one of them? How is that fair? What makes me different from them? Oh, that's right… I'm one of those things now. I'm being kept alive by those things' essence. There's no way I can be human now.

I let out a laugh at my ridiculousness. Why am I being bothered by this? I'm a monster now. There's no way around it. I look back at the family and they're more scared than ever. Fine. Let's do this the hard way. The stone only has to be touched, right?

I make a dash for the man. He predictably tries to smash my head in with the pipe but but I sidestep the blow and go for his family. The first to go would be the mother before I move onto the children. Realizing that I'm coming after her, the woman screams but I interrupt her by touching her forehead with the stone. I quickly catch the baby as the mother disappears in a bright light before ducking under a swipe from its father and tripping him before moving close to the sister. In desperation, the girl tries to kick me. It seems that she has some sort of martial arts training but it's futile. I catch her leg with the stone in my hand, making her vanish. The baby now cries in my arm loudly. I see the man finally get up. Perfect timing.

He tries to make a mad dash for me with pure and utter desperation in his eyes. Perfect indeed. Just before he can touch me, I make the baby disappear with a gentle touch to the nose. "Boop."

A moment of silence ensues before I hear knees falling on the ground. I hear the man painfully bite back a sob. That's a nice sound. He then punches the ground before looking up at me in rage.

"What did you do to my family!"

I can't help but laugh. "The same thing that I'm going to do with you."

I walk slowly towards him as he stands up just as slowly. He throws a fist at my head's direction. Too easy. I move my head to the side and catch his arm. I throw the rock into the air and backhand it onto his cheek. He vanishes in the same fashion as the rest of his family as the Bridge Stone bounces back. I catch it and put it back in my pockets.

Wait. What did I just do? Why did I do that? Why did I feel so excited doing it?

I catch sight of something hanging in the air just in the path between one big broken building and another. That's it. That's what I've been looking for. That's Vulgrim's symbol. I follow it and see that there's a huge hole in the back of the building to the right. The insignias lead me into it and through several rooms until I find a familiar carpet.

"Knock knock, Vulgrim," I call him out.

The carpet glows brighter as the Demon rises out of the carpet and floats on top of it. "Well, if it isn't Elijah," he chuckles darkly, "I'm surprised that you're still in one piece."

Just great. He remembers my name. I really wished he would just forget me so he doesn't act even more familiar with me but I guess him remembering me might be a good thing for the time being.

I look him straight in the eye. "I'm looking for information."

"Ooh. Information on what?" he asks in interest, "Depending on what you require, I will charge you differently."

"Do you know where my fiancée could be or at least someone who might know?"

"So you want to find a human female? Hmm," he hums as he taps his chin with his claw, "If Ulthane sent you to me, I assume that he doesn't know either."

I give him a nod in response. As much as I don't want to see Vulgrim, I need him specifically because Ulthane doesn't know. At my answer, he lets out a low and dark laugh. I'm not liking this. Not one bit.

"That narrows your choices to one. To get me to tell you where he is, you'll have to pay quite a hefty sum."

I'm really not liking this. If there's only one person left and even he doesn't know, I'm pretty much screwed. I wouldn't know what to do then. Hopefully this person could give me something useful. Hopefully.

"Name your price, Demon."

"Oh, don't be like that. You are more Demon than human now, after all," he teases but I'm not having any of it.

"Name. Your. Price."

"A touchy subject, I see. Very well," Vulgrim yields, "One and a half thousand souls would be sufficient for the information you seek."

I bring out the soul collecting trinket that he gave me. "Are there enough in this thing?"

He takes it and laughs to himself seemingly in excitement. "Just barely. I advise you to start seriously collecting those souls. I am a merchant, after all. I can't keep giving you things for free."

The demon takes the souls he required out of the pendant and put them in his mouth. He swallows after he gets them all inside and sighs in satisfaction. He then tosses me back the trinket and I wait for him to start talking.

"There is a being known as the Wiseman. He is an Old One with knowledge surpassing that of the Keeper of Secrets and is rumored to rival that of the Creator although I highly doubt that. He is very elusive and keeps moving around so he can avoid those who would ask for his knowledge and those who would kill him because of that knowledge. I've heard that he has recently moved to Earth but I do not know where."

"You don't know!? How could you not know!? I didn't pay just for you to give me a dead end!"

He puts a palm out in front of my face. "Let me finish." I reluctantly calm down at that. I have to let him talk. "If I knew where the Wiseman was, you would not have been able to pay for the information. Although I don't know where he is, I know of someone who likely does."

"Who?" I ask immediately. I want this to end as soon as possible.

"Be patient. I believe you humans consider that a virtue." Why does he love teasing so much? I wish he would just get to the point. "There is an Angel with the name of Camael. If you go out the way you came and look around, you'll see the tallest still standing structure around. You'll find him in that area."

I nod and turn to take my leave. It might sound petty but I don't want to thank the likes of him. I feel that even the slightest relationship with him other than that of a merchant and his customer might get me into trouble.

"Not so fast, Wicked," he tries to stop me.

Should I stop? There's no telling what he'll do if I stop. He hasn't done anything horrible so far but I know that he's a disaster that's just waiting to happen. But what if the disaster happens today? What if whatever he tells me is actually helpful. Against my better judgement, I turn around.

"What?" I spit at him.

"Seeing as you haven't asked me for a blue portion yet, I assume you do not yet know of Wrath?"

Wrath? Isn't that one of the Seven Deadly Sins? But he also talked about another potion so I doubt it's what he means. "What's that?"

"There are different kinds of magic and one of them is called Wrath. Typically, it enhances your current abilities to create a new and more devastating attack."

It is helpful. That should raise my chances of finding Mari in one piece. "How do I use it?"

To that, Vulgrim laughs darkly again. Man, I hate that sound. He's up to no good. "It is called Wrath for a reason. Invoke the rage that lies within your heart to call upon its powers." His eyes then narrow and his grin grows wider. Not a good sign. "That should also make you more in tune with your Demonic side."

So that's what he was after. "That's not going to happen, Demon. I won't lose my humanity."

"Oh really?" he mocks, "I saw you get a taste of your true new life as a Wicked. I doubt that it hasn't happened again since."

True life? Does that mean that my humanity is only temporary. Am I doomed to be a Demon? Wait. That must be why I enjoyed killing that first monster. That must also be the reason why I… enjoyed… seeing the fear in that family's faces.

"Don't look so down," he starts speaking again, still with that damned grin, "You'll soon find it very fun."

I glare at him. How dare he? What does he know about me? I'll prove him wrong. I won't give in to this Demonic power that is infesting my body. I've grown tired of this conversation. I don't have time for this. The sooner I get away from that damned Demon, the sooner I can find Mari. I turn around and leave without a word. I have nothing to say to him.

I walk out to the street I came from and look around. Now where's a tall building. Oh, there's a big one just north of here. There doesn't seem to be anything taller. It also looks like just half an hour walk away. Lucky. I'm looking for an Angel named Camael, right? Look out, here I come.

I can't believe this… There's a giant gorge about a kilometer wide. I know I have new powers now but there is absolutely now way I can jump that far. What have I done to deserve this? Why does fate hate me so?

I look both sides to decide which way to go. To the right, the hile stretches out into the horizon. Not happening. To the left, it also stretches out to an absurd distance but I think I see an end to it. I see a house just at the edge of the hole. It's decided. I go left.

I take the first step but I suddenly feel restricted. My arms are stuck to my body. This feeling is accompanied by the sound of bones crushing. I then take to the air for reasons I'm not yet aware of. I look down and see giant fingers clamped around me. That explains it.

Wait. Giant freaking fingers!?

The fingers are green and the hand is about as large as my torso. I look back at what in yhe world is holding me and gasp loudly. Not like it would be heard while we're flying through the freaking air.

The creature is large. It has a blue and green body with four arms and two legs. Its body is covered in human bones and its face is covered by a bunch of skulls. Damn, this thing must love torturing people and keeping their bones as trophies. It has its mouth open and its long purple tongue is hanging out.

Now that I kinda know what it is, the next question to answer is where it's taking me and why. I don't need to rush, though. This thing is taking me to where I was just planning on going and it's going there faster than I could've hoped. These jumps are making me a bit motion sick, though. Wait, I'm dead. There's nothing inside me to puke out. I guess I'm just fine for the moment.

The monster stops at a small house with a huge hole at the side. The edge of the gorge is just about a five minute walk away. Lucky! Now if I can just escape this thing and—

I suddenly see the world flashing by my eyes and it stops as my back hits something hard. The monster just threw me at a wall. My feet touch the ground again and I crash down on the floor. This floor feels uneven. Must be rubble. I look to the side and see dead eyes staring back at me. I suppress the urge to scream. That thing will surely kill me.

Why am I hearing bones crushing? I look to see what's causing it and see the monster eating one of the corpses near me. Is that why it brought me here? To eat me along with other corpses? I gotta get up and get out of here. I jump up and away from the pile of bodies that are to be the creature's meal. I train my eyes on it to prepare for danger.

The giant creature is looking right at me. Or at least I think so. I don't see its eyes, I just see skulls. It the lowers its stance. It's preparing to pounce. I lower my own stance to prepare and run for my second life. However, it doesn't pounce towards me. It jumps backwards. Before I can question its motives, it roars out and I hear groans coming from all directions. The creature then spits something out and see that it was a corpse, the same one it just swallowed. It looks intact somehow but it has changed. It then stood up on its own, groaning like whatever was around. It's waking up but not like how I did. It doesn't look like one of the Wicked either. It has no red glowing holes in its chest and forehead. Must be another kind of Undead. The others then pop out from behind other houses and walls. There's… There's so many. How am I going to survive this?

The monster roars again and they all charge towards me. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Gotta think of something quick. Come on, think, think, think! What was it that Vulgrim mentioned again? Wrath? That should be useful right about now. I need to get angry, right? Come on, me. Get angry, get mad, rage, anything to bring out that power.

I sense something coming. I lean back to narrowly avoid an uppercut from one of those corpses. I look up and see another one coming from the sky to deliver a punch. I sidestep it and walk towards a pouncing body. I fall on my back with it mounting me. It snarls at me, showing off its teeth before trying to take a big bite. I punch it in the face before throwing it off me. I look around and see a multitude of rotting bodies. This is not going to be easy.

I pull out my knife. I guess I just have to hack and slash my way out of this. I heat the knife up until it glows red hot to make slicing easier. The first one to die comes charging at me with its hands reaching out. I slice its torso diagonally up and prepare to swing again but there's so little resistance against the blade. The corpse is cut in half just from one slash. I expected them to be a bit tougher. I hear something running up behind me. I spin around and swing my knife to hack its head off. The next one is coming from the right. I charge at it and pierce its neck with my knife facing upwards and split its head open before it even has a chance to choke if it still can breathe.

Between the gap, I see another corpse running after me from behind the last one, catching me off guard. It scratches my face before clawing upwards at my body, sending me off the ground. I open my eyes and see it waiting for me. Not gonna happen. I've been thinking about a move but I never got a chance to test it out. Now's a better chance than any. I swing at the air and channel more of my fire ability through the blade. The slash leaves behind a trail of fire which flies at the Undead down below, cutting it in half. It works! This makes things easier… and more fun.

I laugh to myself as soon as I land. I'm going to enjoy this. I'm surrounded on all sides by these things. No matter, they're easy pickings now. I make wide slashes at the air to make more of those fire beams, mowing through a chunk of corpses. I do this several more times to significantly lessen their numbers. I look around to see the leftovers but I see nothing. Oops, looks like I got carried away. I was planning on killing the last ones slowly. Oh well. At least I got one last opponent left.

I turn to the monster and I hear it growling at me. "Oh? Did I make you angry? Well, too bad, you bastard."

I charge at it and at the same time, it jumps towards me. I'm going to enjoy this. I heat my knife up even more but before it could cut into the monster, it gets taken away by something else. Something with feathered wings.

The bird slams my prey into the concrete and pulls out its sword as the monster cries out in pain. The four-armed creature tries to raise its head but the winged kill stealer punches it in the face and jumps off its body. That thing swings its sword down and chops the giant monster's head off. It swings its sword through the air to remove the blood. Not like it matters, the kill will vanish any moment now along with any traces of it. Now, to deal with this new bastard.

"Hey, you!" I call out to it, "How dare you steal my prey!?"

The birdman turns to look at me but immediately gasps. "You… You can talk… How…" It then hardens its expression. "Are you the one they call Wicked Killington?"

"I asked you a question!" I yell as I run at it.

I jump in the air whilst heating my knife up once more. I jump and slash downwards towards the enemy's head. It blocks my attack with its own blade.

"No, you're too hot blooded to be him," it surmises.

"Shut up and die!"

We stay at a standstill for a few seconds. I feel my knife getting less and less resistance. The heat is slowly melting the sword. I stare into its wielder's eyes and glare. Its eyes are white and… glowing slightly. It seems like… Seems like… something holy…

Oh, crap! I'm going against an Angel!

I jump away. Now that I have a clear mind, I can see that he's just a bit smaller than Ulthane. Along with his glowing eyes, he has a bald head with white glowing markings on it. His armor is golden and ornate. It covers all of his body except his head and feathered wings. His sword is huge but looks like a normal longsword in his hands. It has white glowing lines along the blade and the crossguard, the pommel, and the handle are as golden and ornate as his armor. His left gauntlet is larger in size and wider than his right. It looks like a small shield or buckler of sorts. I picked the wrong guy to mess with.

He leans forward and flaps his wings. He's charging at me! What do I do? I can't fight back, he'll kill me! Think, Elijah, think!

I get on all fours and lower my head. "I'm sorry! Please, spare me!"

This is so embarassing. I really don't wanna be doing this but I'd rather be pathetic than dead. It seems to have taken effect. I don't feel like I'm missing any limbs. I don't feel like I've changed my position or location either. I hear a calm succession of flaps. He's right in front of me. I look up at him. He looks confused but mostly disgusted. I don't blame him. I'd be disgusted too. I'm disgusted right now.

"You claim to kill me but beg for your life once you're in danger?" he asks, clearly outraged.

"I'm sorry!" I apologize once more, "I wasn't thinking clearly."

I then hear something stabbing into the ground damn near my head. "Why should I trust you?"

I immediately pull another knife out. His sword is in the ground, he can't pull it out quickly and kill me in the same motion. This is my chance to appeal to him. I make a point to keep my head bowed as I showed him the engraving on my blade. "I came to find an Angel named Camael. I was told he can direct me to someone who might know where my fiancée is. I didn't come here to cause trouble."

I feel my knife being taken from my hands. I look up and see him inspecting the knife. He then looks at me cautiously and questioningly. "Where did you get this knife amd who told you about me?"

"I didn't steal the knife, I promise. My name is Elijah Tyson and my fiancèe, Marigold Johnson, gave it to me when I was still alive." He seems to be buying it so far seeing as his facial expression hasn't changed yet. Better keep it that way. "As for who told me about you, it was a merchant named Vulgrim."

His whole demeanor suddenly turns hostile. "Vulgrim!?" he questions. That definitely does not sound good. I made a grave mistake.

"I-I paid him for the information! I'm not friends with him! I really just want to find Mari! I don't want anything to do with him!" I try to plead.

He calms down a bit but the hostility remains. "Even if what you say is true, you're still a Wicked. You cannot be trusted."

What? What does that have to do with anything? "What do you mean?"

"You do not know?" I shake my head in response. "The Wicked are called the Wicked for a reason. They used to be humans with great evil inside their hearts."

"What!? That can't be true! I'm not a bad person, I've never committed any crimes in my life! I lived trying to help people! The personality you just saw was just an effect of the Demonic energy in me!"

He shakes his head. "Demonic energy does not create whole new personalities nor do they enhance the evil parts of your soul. They simply give you power. Whatever attacked me was a natural part of your heart."

Is… Is that true? Was I evil and I just didn't know it? I… No… I refuse to accept that! "You're wrong! I was never evil and never will be! Me being a Wicked was just a stroke of misfortune."

He glares at me burt I glare back. I'm not giving in. I'm not believing in any of his lies. I know who I am. He knows nothing about me. After a few moments, he sighs and tosses my knife back. It'll fall short. I hurriedly move to catch it before putting it in its sheath.

"If you feel so strongly about your claim, prove it. We'll see if you really try to find your lover or simply go on to be a force of chaos," he challenges.

"I will definitely find her if it's the last thing I do."

He sighs once more. "I assume the one you're looking for is the Wiseman." I nod my head to let him know he's correct. "You'll find him in that building ahead," he points at the tall structure that I used as a beacon, "He chose that location for he deemed me one of the White City's greatest warriors and knew that I chose this area as my base when I fought in the End War." I think he's referring to the Apocalypse. It's likely a war between Heaven and Hell. "He hired me to guard him in exchange for any knowledge that I ask for so long as it is to strengthen myself. I humbly accepted."

I nod, absorbing the new information. He must be pretty strong if that's the case. I'm glad I came to my sense before he could slaughter me. "He's at the highest level of the building, right?"

"Indeed, but do not think that it would be as simple as climbing the building," he warns in a dark voice. Not a good sign. "He turned the location into a labyrinth designed to let in only the strongest and smartest of beings. You will have to solve puzzles along the way. Fail them, and you die. You will also face Angels in there but worry not about their lives, they are simply illusions made by the Wiseman's magic." I was holding my breath at the thought of facing opponents but fortunately, they're only apparitions. It should be simple.

"However," he resumes. Oh no. "They are not mere illusions. They might not be alive but they are as strong and as durable as real Angel soldiers. They are modelled after some students of mine who occasionally come to help me, after all." He looks proud but that doesn't help me at all. "If you manage to reach him, he will give you the answers you need."

"Why can't you just take me there? He trusts you, right?" I don't want to go through that if I don't have to.

"He trusts me, yes, but you, no." That's not the answer I wanted. "There is a reason why he made the labyrinth. It is to prevent anyone from trying to take his knowledge for their own purposes."

I sigh but I can understand that. I didn't like it when people kept asking me to cook for them either. "Thanks for the info. I'll be on my way."

"Good luck but remember…" His expression darkens. "If I find you doing anything but what you promised, I will not hesitate to cut you down."

"I-I promise you w-won't be disappointed."

"Hmph."

He then flies away, leaving me to my devices. I better not give him any reason to kill me. The building is near. I'll get there soon. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, though…


	7. Labyrinth I

I stand in front of the building and take one last quick look at it to get an idea of how long climbing it would take. Seven stories high and who knows how many rooms. There could even be underground levels for all I know. This will definitely take a while. But I can't get lazy now. I have to do this.

I walk up to the front doors. Most buildings in this area have what used to be automatic doors but not this one. This one has two large doors about three times as tall as I am and engraved in them are angels and a large ball in the sky shining a ray of light onto the land. This is going to be heavy. Really heavy. I put both hands on the right door and push with all my might. I hear a slight low creak but it's not moving that much. I turn around and lean on the door. I push my feet onto the ground to push back at the door behind me. Still nothing. I push even harder but it still doesn't move much.

I'm starting to get a little annoyed. My answers are in the building and something as simple as a door is keeping me away. I'm off to a great start. First hurdle and I already want to solve things by punching it.

Wait. That might be a good idea. I pull my arm back and clench my rotting fist. I twist my body so that I can put more force behind the hit. I throw the punch as hard and fast as I can. The door then bursts open but surprisingly, it's unharmed. Before the door could close again, I run inside. I hear the heavy door slamming behind me and I take that as a cue yo take a look around the room.

But unfortunately, It doesn't look like I'll get to do that in peace. There are two things in my way. Two things with mechanical wings, golden armor, glowing eyes, and large swords. These must be the Angels that Camael talked about. Just great.

One of them lunges at me, sword pointed at me. I run towards it and slide under its flying form. The other angel greets me on the other side with a downwards sword swing. I pull out my knife and block its attack. The impact sounds like steel hitting steel. I expected it to be… different since its an illusion. I should treat this like it's real, then.

I heat my knife up and I hear sizzling. The illusion retracts its slightly melted sword and backs away. I don't get a chance to wonder why before I hear the sound of a sword being swung from above. I see the other Angel coming down at me and I immediately roll out of the way and stand up. I see both of them flying towards me. Not gonna happen. I swing my blade in an arc in front of me and send out a beam of heat. It works and sends them flying backwards with scorch marks on their armor. They're certainly tougher than the corpses. I can't get them both at the same time. I have to pick them off one by bloody one.

This is going to be fun.

I jump towards the one with the slightly melted sword before he gets to recover. It screams in agony as I dig my knife into its shoulder and heats it up. I actually hear blood boiling. These illusions are great. These are supposed to be trained Angels. Being the goody two shoes they would be, I doubt they'd risk hitting each other. As long as I stick to one of them, I won't have to worry about being attacked by the two of them at once.

Wait a minute. Why isn't this Angel thrashing around in pain? I hear a sword being swung and I feel something cutting into my back. Crap. This one stopped moving to make it easier for the other to hit me. I need to keep moving. I kick the illusion under me to launch me towards the other. Before it can bring its sword up to guard, I send a blade beam at its face, causing it to try and tend to the wound in pain. The worst thing about this power is that it automatically cauterizes the wound which means no blood gets spilled. That's not fun, dammit.

I pivot on my heel just in time to come face to face with the pointy end of a blade. I move my head to the side, causing it to only cut my cheek. I then lunge forward and stab my knife into the Angel's abdomen. I keep the blade red hot to cleanly cut into the armor. I then run my blade along its body and out of its side, making a straight line across its body. It lets out a shout of pain which turns into a gurgle as I jump up and plunge my knife into its throat. Before I could let out a laugh and wait for the body to drop to retrieve my weapon, I see a blade sticking out of my abdomen. I should really pay attention to my surroundings. This just ruined my good mood.

The illusion stabs its blade into the ground with me skewered on it, making my body slam onto the floor. It retracts his blade out of the ground and my body. Unfortunately for the illusion, I don't feel pain. I don't need to tend to my wound. I watch as the other Angel drop to the ground as its body, armor, and weapon disintegrate into light particles, leaving my knife behind and several souls which automatically fly into my collection amulet. I quickly roll towards it and grab it before standing up and swinging diagonally upwards to send another beam of heat towards my attacker. It throws up a hasty and sloppy block but it doesn't protect itself on time. The beam cuts into and through its forearms. It screams bloody murder as its forearms slide off. I'm going to enjoy this.

I dash forward and cut one of its legs off. I can't help but let out a laugh as I watch it topple over and land on its face. I take my blade and heat it up once more. I plunge it into its lower back, immobilizing its remaining leg. I then slowly cut along its spine. The angel's screams of pain are loud and so satisfying. I finally get to the point where if I cut any further, this thing would die. Its shouts die out as exhaustion sets in. It's about time to end this. I pull my blade out of its back and cut its head in half. I only get a second to enjoy the sight of my work before its body disintegrates and drops souls.

…

It happened again… Why did it happen again!? How could I let it happen again!?

I don't have time to get angry. I need to get to the top of this damn place. I can work on that demonic personality later on. I take a bottle of green liquid that has been hanging on my pants. Good thing it didn't break in all that chaos. I open the container and pour the horrible liquid down my throat, trying to taste as little of it as possible. Why did my sense of taste remain when I can't even feel pain anymore? How does that make sense?

I then take a look at the room around me. It's not that large. There are two doors around me excluding the one I entered through. They look like the first set of double doors. However, there are no stairs or elevators. It's safe to assume that the way up is behind one of these doors. The door in front of the one I entered through has some sort of lock on it. Translucent chains that glow a pale yellow light run across the door to form an 'X' with an eye that has a pupil shaped like a keyhole in the middle. I walk around the room and the eye follows me. That's really creepy. That leaves me with the door to my right. I punch the door open with my fist boosted with a burst of fire and quickly get inside the room.

I quickly get into a stance to prepare for battle. Sure enough, there is one angel in the room and it has already spotted me. I don't want to slip back into that personality again so I have to end this before it kicks in. I charge my knife with energy as the Angel charges at me. Right before it can touch me, I swing my blade, releasing an intense wave of heat that stuns and severely burns the illusion. I quickly dash forward and separate its head from the rest of its body. I relax as I hear the sound of something hitting the ground and bouncing followed by the body flopping down. I hear several things moaning as they approach the soul talisman on my person before they all stop. I finally get the chance to survey the room. There are two elevated platforms on opposite sides of the room. One contains a chest and the other has a door. In between the two is a huge rectangular block. Maybe I can use that to get up there. The block only reaches up to my waist, making it easy to climb. But the platforms are even higher and there's no way I can jump all the way up to either. I'm missing something.

I take another good look around and see a decorated gold circle on the wall with handles sticking out of the center. I jump down the block and walk towards it. I put my hands on the handles and pull with all my might. It's harder than I thought it would be. I can only move it slowly but at least I'm actually moving it. After several seconds of pulling, I hear a click and machinery whirring. I look behind me and see that the rectangular block was just a part of a bigger block that was sticking out of the floor and it's now rising. Wait, rising? Oh crap! I'm gonna get left behind!

I hurry to the block and just barely make it before it could rise beyond my reach. I catch my nonexistent breath and stand up while I wait for my ascent to finish. The door in one of the platforms starts to come into view. I guess I'm going there first. The block stops moving with a loud mechanical click. I lower my stance to jump but before I could do so, vertical bars drop down from the arch in the doorway, blocking the door. What!? How the hell am I supposed to go through there now!? Did the block rising trigger this? If I go back and push that circle thingy in, I'm not gonna be able to reach the platforms. I'm missing another piece. I should get to the chest first before I think of the door.

I turn around a jump for the chest. It looks like it's made out of bone and there's a skull in the center between the lid and the rest of the chest. I don't see a keyhole anywhere. I don't even see any hinges. Maybe if I knock on it…

It sounds hollow. I can easily break this lid. I heat up my right elbow and with a burst of fire, I throw a rocket powered uppercut at the lid, breaking the middle part off from the rest of the chest. About 15 souls fly out of the chest. I better grab my collection talisman out. The moaning stops as every soul is sucked into the amulet. I notice that other things are in the chest. Two bottles. One containing green liquid and the other containing blue liquid. This must be the Wrath Potion. These potions are all stored in the same kind of bottle with chains on top. I chain the potions up on my pants. Luckily, these things aren't all that heavy.

I then see something peeking out from behind the chest. It looks like a spiky magma ball on top of some stand. I don't know if it's actually hot. I can't feel temperature anymore. I pick it up but I feel a bit of resistance before it breaks off from the stand, or rather, stump. This is a plant!? It's soft and sticky. Very sticky. Seeing as my flesh isn't burning, it's not too hot either. What does this do? It suddenly flashes red repeatedly. That does not sound good. I throw it away and it's a good thing I did. It exploded not long after it left my hand. It's a bomb… I was holding a bomb that could've killed me…

Wait. I could've used that to push the button in. Dammit! What the hell am I supposed to do now. As if on cue, black liquid comes out of the stump and forms another bomb. It grows back quickly. How convenient. I grab one and throw it in the direction of the button. Damn, I missed. I wait for another bomb to grow as the last one blows up. I take the new one but this time I aim it carefully. It sticks to the circle and blows up, shoving it back against the wall. The block then starts sinking. On no, I forgot to get on the block before throwing the bomb! I quickly run and jump on the block before jumping onto the opposite platform. I'm going to come up short. I can't land on my feet but I grab onto the ledge before I could fall. I pull myself up and sigh in relief. I managed to make it. I wait for the block to stop sinking. The bars automatically retract into the doorway, making it possible for me to enter the other room. I punch the door open and go inside.

It's quite a wide circular room and in the middle is a pillar of pale light. In the pillar, there's a large black key positioned vertically. The most eye-catching feature it has is that it's floating in midair and it's out in the open. Who leaves a key unprotected like this? Well, not really unprotected but still. How can you leave a key in plain sight? I guess I should be grateful. I walk up to it and put out my hand to grab it. I hear sizzling and see smoke coming from my hand as it goes into the light pillar. I quickly retract my hand. I might not feel pain but I'm not too keen on losing a limb.

I then hear the sound of wings flapping all around me. Angels. Four of them. Where the hell did they come from?

Before I can ponder on that question, The one to my right dashes towards me. I barely jump back in time to avoid getting skewered. Before I can grab my knife, I hear something swooping down from behind me. I bend over backwards and see a sword followed by its wielder flying over me. I then jump over an attack aimed at my midsection before the Angel in front of me tries to cut me vertically in half while I'm in the air. I can't change direction midair. I quickly grab my knife and put up a hasty block.

The blow sends me tumbling into the ground. I recover quickly. It was not that strong of a blow. I quickly sidestep an illusion trying to run me through with its sword and quickly slash its torso with my own hot blade. I jump over another Angel flying towards me and stab it in the back. It crashes into the ground and I take the opportunity to cut along its spine to kill it. This is starting to be fun…

No! I'm not that kind of person! I have to end this quick before that monster comes out.

I raise my knife over my shoulder to stab one of the apparitions which was trying to creep up on me. Judging by the sound, I can guess that I stabbed through bone, probably the center of the chest. I swing my weapon forward, cutting the Angel's face in half. Two down, two more to—

I hurriedly duck under a wide swing from one of them. That was close. I charge my blade with energy before releasing it at the one who just tried to cut my head off. Before I could capitalize on the attack, the other one drops down from above with its blade pointed at me. I jump back and immediately dash forward after seeing the sword get embedded into the ground. I make sure to heat up my knife to as hot as I can and it works. I easily stab through the Angel's armor and manage to pierce my whole arm into the body die to my inertia. I quickly retract my arm, letting the illusion's blood spill all over my body. The sight. The smell. So intoxica— Stop!

As soon as the body dissipated into light, I see the last Angel gripping its chest and weakly pointing its sword at me. Well, that's a bit anticlimactic for the final fight of the room. I charge my blade up for the final blow when, with a sudden burst of speed, the illusion charges at me. Panicking, I quickly launch a beam of heat towards it but it was too weak to stop the charge. However, it was strong enough to slow the Angel down a bit. Thanks to that, I read his moves and sidestep the downward swing of the sword and plunge my weapon into the wound I created earlier, making it deeper. I slice downwards, spilling the Angel's guts before it dies. I try to suppress the smile creeping on my face. I did not do what I just did to have a laugh.

Finally, the body dissipates like the others and the souls that came out of it gets collected by my amulet. However, something else drops from the last Angel. A bottle of green liquid. One more for the collection. I hear the sound of a bell behind me. I look and see that the light surrounding the key has turned golden in color. That means something good, right?

I walk towards it and tentatively put my fingers into the light. Huh, it doesn't hurt. I grab the key and walk out of the room. I walk forward and almost fall down. Oh, right. I forgot I was on an elevated platform. I think I can survive this fall. I've tanked more. I jump down and as expected, I'm completely fine. I punch open the door I came used to come in and go inside the first room.

I walk towards the giant eye. That thing still follows me wherever I go. I stick the key into its oddly shaped pupil and it causes black liquid to spew out. Ugh, gross. I turn the key and the pupil turns with it. The key stops after 90 degrees. The eye closes and the chains break soon after. The lock along with the key disappears, leaving nothing in between me and the door. I cock my fist and punch it to open up a way to the next room. I walk inside and start to survey the room. It's a narrow room but that's because the only thing here is a spiral staircase to the next floor. I climb up and punch my way into the first room upstairs.

"That's a surprise. I certainly was not expecting you to survive the first level," a voice condescends. It came from nowhere in particular. I can't discern where the speaker is. The voice sounded so airy, as if the speaker has already lost his voice and can only speak in whispers.

"You sorely underestimate me," I retort, "Just because I'm a corpse doesn't mean I don't have a brain."

"You have quite a mouth as well. Fascinating." He's starting to sound like Vulgrim.

"What do you want?"

The voice lets out a laugh. "Come find me, Wicked, and find out. However, you might get a lot more than you want."

"What do you mean?"

No response. I guess that's my cue to hurry up with this. More than what I want, huh? Sounds like a freebie to me but in this world, I can never be too sure. Now, where do I start on this floor?


	8. Labyrinth II

I take my time to scan my surroundings. There's a gate made out of large golden spikes in front of me and two hallways two the left and right of the gate. I'm gonna go on a leg and say that there's where I need to go next. But how do I open it?

I walk closer to see more but on the way, I step on something that sinks into the ground. As soon as I feel myself sinking, I immediately jump away. The platform that I was just standing on springs back up. I realize that it's large, square, and golden. Is that a pressure plate?

I step on it again and I hear mechanical parts moving. A loud sound then startles me, almost making me jump away again. I look at what caused the sound and see that the gate has sunk down by half its height. Of course it's only half. Someone named the Wiseman wouldn't make it that easy. I'm missing something and I think I know what it is.

I look to my left and sure enough, there is another pressure plate. I walk out of the platform that I'm on, letting the gate go back up, and step into the other platform. It also lowers the gate by half its height. It seems like I need to be stepping on these two plates at the same time but that's impossible. They're too far apart. I need something else heavy enough to push a pressure plate down and I have a feeling that vaguely know where it is. The question is do I go to the left hallway or the right one? Right sounds right so I'll go right.

I have to give credit to this Wiseman guy. He made this building look so much like ancient ruins. However, why anyone would want something to look older is beyond me.

I try to take a look at what lies inside the hallway but it's empty and has a sharp turn towards the right at the end. I walk slowly and carefully towards the turn. This place looks too empty to be safe. After about two minutes, I reach the turn without any trouble. I guess I was wrong. It is safe. I guess I shouldn't be too paranoid. It's still the second floor, after all.

Wait! Scratch that. I hear wings flapping and the sounds are steadily growing louder. I knew it! I pull my knife out and start to charge it. I jump out from behind my cover and unleash the blast of fire. I can now see that there are two Angels and I just sent them both reeling. Time to capitalize on this opportunity.

I rush at the one on the left. I point my knife at it as I jump forward. However, before I could reach it, it flies up towards the ceiling where I can't reach it.

"Hey! Come back here!"

I heat my blade up and prepare to swing. As I concentrate on charging up, I hear flapping wings coming my direction. The other one is coming for me! I quickly turn around and fire the beam at it instead of my original target. I didn't get enough time to charge it so it makes sense that the illusion is not as fazed as it was before. It immediately recovers and swings its sword diagonally downwards. I meet its weapon with my own because I don't have enough time to dodge. We stay there in deadlock before I hear the other Angel swooping down at me. I quickly roll away to avoid getting skewered but as soon as I finish, I see one of them coming at me. I try to sidestep the incoming attack but I can only go far enough to avoid getting cut in half. I now have a large cut through my side. It doesn't hurt but it can cause complications later.

I see something coming at me from the corner of my eye. I immediately dash forward to dodge it before quickly charging my knife up. As expected, an Angel comes flying directly towards my face and the other comes falling from above. I slash my weapon upwards to make an arc long enough to get them both. I know that'll only daze them for a second but a second is all I need. There's also the fact that I need to end this before the monster comes out.

I lunge forward as I heat my knife up as hot as I possibly can given the small window of time I have. Before the Angel could recover from my previous attack, I plunge my knife into its armored chest. I quickly take my knife out and jump away from an attack I already knew would come. I duck under its next horizontal swing and cut its hand off. The armor there is considerably thinner to make sure the wrist can move. It drops its sword as it cries out in pain. Time to end this. I stab its abdomen with the cutting edge of my blade facing up. I then pour heat into the weapon until I hear blood boiling. With one swift movement, I cut the Angel's upper body in half. I put my knife away as souls enter my collection trinket. That was fun— No! No, its wasn't.

I start walking again when I hit something with my foot. A bottle of that green liquid. Oh, that's right, I needed this. I almost forgot about this huge cut on the right side of my waist. I pick the bottle up and chug its contents, trying not to get anything on my tongue. The aftertaste is still disgusting but at least I avoided the worst of it. My side glows green as the wound patches itself up. Now, I'm in top condition again.

I look around and realize that I'm already in the room I need to be in. I guess I was too busy fending off killer Angels to notice. It's a spacey square room. There's a large stone block in the middle. That's something I can use to push one of the platforms down. The problem is it's surrounded by and held in place by giant yellow crystals with black gooey stuff at the base. I walk up to the crystals and touch one. Smooth and hard like gems. I guess I just need to smash it. I cover my fist in fire and with a burst of speed, I hit it. The sound echoes throughout the room but the crystal doesn't look very damaged. In fact, there's no scratch on it. That was my strongest punch! What am I supposed to do now?

I take a look around the room and spot a glowing spiky ball. A bomb plant! Exactly what I needed. However, there's a catch. It's up on a high ledge to the left side of the entrance. There's no indication that there's a rising platform around here so there must be another way. I look at the wall below the ledge and realize there are structures I can hold onto to get up there. However, they're too far apart to be within arm's reach of each other. There's nothing else so I guess I just have to use my upper body strength.

I walk up to the wall and jump towards the first wooden ledge. I grab on with my two hands just in case one of them slips. Why don't I feel any strain? Oh yeah, I'm dead. Another thing that works in my favor. I push my body upwards and my hands downwards to launch myself up to the next platform. This is surprisingly easy. I use that method to go all the way to the topmost ledge. I pull myself up and walk towards the bomb plant. I pluck it off of its base and throw it towards the crystals. The bomb sticks to one of them before blowing up. To my surprise, instead of simply shattering and going everywhere, the crystals explode in spectacular fashion as well. Does that mean that I fire punched something very flammable? Did I come close to stupidly re-ending my own life?

Anyway, I have to get the stone block to the main room. I jump all the way down, cracking the floor beneath me. I'm not paying for that. I walk up behind the block and push it towards the entrance. I expected there to be a lot of resistance to my strength but this things is easy to push. Why is this block so much easier to move than the doors!? I guess I can't complain. This is taking too long for my liking, though. I should just punch it to where I want it to be. It shouldn't break, right? It just survived a few explosions, after all.

I give it a strong punch to launch it towards where the hallway turns. I walk towards it and punch it once more towards the hallway's entrance. I have to push from this point on. I can't accurately punch it towards the platform. I get the block onto the pressure plate and it fits like a glove. The gate sinks into the ground by half its height and it stays that way. I walk onto the other platform to make the gate completely disappear. I walk towards the next place but as soon as I step off the pressure plate, the gate goes back up. Of course it's not gonna be that easy. I guess I'm gonna have to go to the left hallway now.

I'm not taking any chances this time. I begin turning my blade red hot as I walk towards the hallway. It's so hot now that nearby moss are burning. Perfect. I come near the entrance of the hallway and I already hear something flying my way. It sounds like there's only a single pair of wings out there. Even more perfect. I jump out and immediately release a radiant horizontal beam of fire. The Angel doesn't even realize it's doomed yet. The beam neatly slices the illusion, separating its lower and upper halves from each other. The lower body falls down and its innards fall out of the newly made hole. The Angel still flaps its wings, still trying to pose a threat. Damn, these illusion are realistic. This… This is funny! I can't help but give out a laugh as the upper body finally drops to the floor. The body disappears as the souls come swarming towards me. Damn these Angel and Demon bodies, not leaving corpses behind. They would've made for the perfect funny looking trophies.

No, stop! How did that happen? That fight ended in one move, there shouldn't have been enough action to excite the demon. What's happening? What's going to happen from now on? Am I really losi—

Focus, Elijah, focus. You're here for the other block. Now go to the next room and get it.

I go through the entrance and I can already see that this room is vastly different to the one on the other side. Much more dangerous too. No wonder there was only one Angel here. This room would kill whoever made it through.

Once again, the block is in front of me. This time, however, there's a whole gorge separating us filled with spikes. If I fall, I'm definitely not surviving that. The only way to get to the other side is a set of three platforms that I have to jump on. There are pipes above each platform. What are they there for?

I step up to the edge and prepare to jump. I lower my body and in that moment, fire comes spewing out of the pipes and onto the platform. Woah! I almost got myself killed there. After three seconds, the pipes close. Another three seconds pass and the pipes open up again, releasing flames. I guess I have to work with a short window of three seconds.

I wait for the flames to go out before taking a few steps back and running towards the first platform. As I begin to jump, bursts of fire begin to come out of the pipes. My timing was wrong! I try to halt my movement but it's too late, I still find myself jumping off the ground. However, I manage to slow myself enough so that I wouldn't land in that shower of fire.

Oh, crap! There's another problem. I still need to avoid those spikes so I grab onto the edge of the platform and feel my dead flesh melt off my bones. Please let my bones hold out. If they melt as well, I'm dead. I look down and look at the deadly ground below me, dimly illuminated by the fire. Those spikes look sharp as hell even though they're covered in dried blood. I really don't wanna fall down there.

The fire soon goes away and thankfully, my finger bones are still intact. Ulthane did say something about a Creator, right? Do I need to thank him or her? I pull myself up the ledge. I'm still not safe yet so I quickly jump towards the second platform.

That's when I hear the sound of raging fire. The pipes are about to open again! I took too much time! I hurriedly jump to the third platform, almost slipping off. I have no time to worry about my footing. I can hear the pipes beginning to open up. I bend my knees and push myself off of the ground just as the fire begins to rain down. It was too late for me to get out of there unscathed. I can feel the flesh on my back melting away. That's going to leave a mark.

However, I can't feel pain so I'm mostly fine. I unchain a bottle of green potion from my pants and pour the liquid directly down my throat. After a quick coughing fit, the flesh on my fingers and back grow back. The taste is a curse but the effects are a blessing.

Now that that's done, I'm faced with another problem. How the hell am I supposed to get this block to the other side? If I try to punch it, it would fall down and that would cause a lot of horribly unneeded problems. Once again, I'm missing a puzzle piece. I walk around the block and around the place I'm on to look for a pressure plate, a switch, a lever, something, anything, and sure enough, there's a lever near the edge of this wide platform. I walk towards it and pull on it until it clicks.

The room is shaking. That's not good. Did I just pull some kind of self-destruct switch? Did I just doom myself? Before I could truly panic, the pipes all close up and recede into the ceiling. Several platforms came out of the gorge and made a huge bridge with the original three platforms. Perfect! I did not get myself killed.

To make things quick, I punch the stone block to the main room before carefully pushing it onto the second pressure plate. It sinks down along with the gate which fully disappears into the ground, granting me free passage. Finally! I walk to the newly opened section of the building to find myself in a circular room. I hear a metallic sound from behind me, making me jump. I turn around and see that the gate has been restored to its original position. What the hell?

"I knew you were an interesting one," said that whispering voice.

"What do you want this time?" I'm getting tired of being seen as a rare specimen to be experimented on.

However, Wiseman ignores my question and speaks again, "I know of a few Wicked who retained their souls but only you seeked my knowledge. Why is that?"

I roll my eyes. "How should I know? You're the Wiseman, you tell me."

He continues to ignore my words. "I simply cannot wait for you to come." He lets out a soft ominous laugh. "I'll give you a… shortcut to hasten your arrival… or your death." His soft chuckle turns into a louder and more hearty laugh.

Before I can snap back at him, the room shakes. What the hell is going on now!? Am I going to die here? Suddenly, the floor collapses under my feet, sending me plunging into the dark abyss below.


	9. Labyrinth III

As I fall, my surroundings become darker and darker. My body flails around, trying to grasp onto something, anything, just to survive even though my brain knows the futility of resistance. I keep falling. It has been four seconds and it has become too dark to see anything and yet, my instincts are still screaming at me to do hold onto something. After three more seconds, I see a dull red light shining through the gaps between the rubble falling below me. I can finally see the end of this abyss. Before I can get a good look, however, I hit the ground.

I must've been falling very fast. I just felt the room shake. I push my body up from the ground and I notice something below me. A large crater with the shape of my body. It's deep enough to embed my body completely into the ground. I completely stand up but to my surprise, I stagger. I look down at my body and see that sharp pieces of rubble, some larger than others, have stabbed their way into me. Nothing a bottle of disgusting green goop can't fix. I reach down to the side of my waist…

… and find nothing. Wait, what!? I look to that side of my body and sure enough, there's nothing hanging there. I look around here, there, everywhere. They must be somewhere around here. Nothing just disappears. I have to find them or else, I'll die, again!

Amidst my panic, I find them. However, I find them in the worst possible way. On the ground near me, I see splotches of green and blue liquid along with broken glass. No! This can't be happening! I can't possibly do anything in this condition.

I guess I'll just lie down here and wait for something to come kill me. Or until my body completely rots. I have failed this challenge. I have failed my second chance at life. I have failed Mari– wait! What's that?

There are two intact bottles on the ground. One green and one blue. Yes! I can still do this! I stand up, walk over, and pick the containers up. The lids have popped off but most of the contents are miraculously still inside. I close up the blue potion bottle and hang the chain on my pants. As for the green bottle… it's good that I found it but… I'm not gonna enjoy this.

I gulp down the goo and force myself to swallow. I throw the bottle away. The sound it makes as it breaks echoes around the room. My body parts push out the embedded rubble as they regenerate. It's a good thing my wounds didn't heal around those things. That would've caused more trouble than needed.

I finally get to the point where I look around and inspect the room. It looks more like a cave rather than the basement of a huge building. Apart from the rubble, there are only two things of note here: two standing torches and the door in between them. That's a good sign. Wiseman didn't trap me in a hole with no exit. This should be the shortcut he was talking about. Although I wonder how going down is a shortcut to the highest floor.

I punch the door open and walk inside the next room. Right in front of me, there's a pillar in the middle of the room stretching upwards into infinity as far as I can tell from here. There are many ledges on it that look like the ones I used to climb up in one of the previous rooms. It's pretty obvious what I'm meant to do here.

However, surrounding the pillar is a large hole lit up by a bright red light. Coming from that hole is the sound of viscous fluid boiling. I take a look down there and see lava. Is this room really that deep into the Earth's crust? Just how much effort did that guy put into renovating this place into a deathtrap?

I lift my head up and step back to prepare for a jump. The gorge is narrow enough for me to jump over. However, I notice that the first ledge is too high up for me to jump to, I'll definitely die if I make the jump now. Of course it won't be as straightforward as that. Even the shortcut requires putting a few pieces together.

… Or not. There's a lever just to my right. Why didn't I notice that before? I walk over to it and use a ridiculous amount of strength just to flip it. A rumbling sound resonates throughout the room as a giant block of rock slowly rises up from the ground. That's my starting point. I run towards it and jump onto the platform. And now, I wait.

I look upwards to look more carefully at what I'm about to put myself through. Not only does the pillar have those ledges, the walls have them too. Along with ledges, there are poles sticking out of the walls. I think they're supposed to be perches. Great, more parkour. Other than that, there's nothing. The higher part of the room is shrouded in darkness, making it impossible for me to see what's inside. That isn't a good sign. What could be up there?

Breaking my train of thought, the block stops moving. I'm now high enough to make the first jump. However, the sound of metal slamming down on the ground makes almost me jump out of fright. I look behind me and see that the door I entered through has been blocked by metal bars. The room then trembles, slightly making me lose balance. Fortunately, the shaking is not strong enough to throw me off this block. The shaking stops as suddenly as it started. I look around to see what could've caused that but then I saw the most frightening thing I've seen in this building. The lava in the hole is rising up, threatening to flood the whole room. Crap! I thought the only thing I have to do here is jump around. I can't take my time anymore, I have to get out of here quickly!

I jump towards the first ledge. Without wasting time, I jump up the two following ledges. There's nothing I can jump up to anymore. I look around to see where I could go. I find that this ledge stretches to the left. I shimmy along the handhold. I push my body up to the next one. Another dead end. I look to my left. Then, to my right. There's nothing! I look down. The lava has risen up a disturbing distance. It's now just five meters below me. I have to find something!

I look around the pillar but find nothing. Oh, that's right, there are also things I can hold onto on the walls. I look behind me and sure enough, there's a ledge there. I kick off the the pillar. I grab onto the wall. One thing I noticed while I was in the air is that the only place I can go from here is down. I really don't want to go down. I'd risk the lava catching up to me. But, if I hesitate, I'll surely die. I drop down to the handhold below me. Then, the one below that. At this point, my clothes are starting to burn due to the magma _just two meters beneath my feet_!

I quickly shuffle along to the right. I jump across to the next ledge. I do the same thing again to get to the next two handholds. The lava's only one meter away now! I quickly jump up three ledges to put some distance between me and certain death. There's a perch just above me. I push my body onto it and— Woah!

I close my eyes by instinct as I hold tightly onto the wooden beam. I slowly open my eyes and come face to face with what could've killed me just then. I almost fell down! I need to be more careful. I gingerly stand up, trying to keep my balance all the way. I slowly walk over to the end of the beam. There's an opening inside the pillar. I lower my body and jump inside.

Once again, I smell burning fabric. I'm too close to the magma. I look around the inside and see a spiralling staircase made out of rock. Without wasting a second, I run up to it and begin climbing. However, the ground starts shaking. I stop for a second, not wanting to fall down and be forced to start over again. The shaking stops but the rumbling sound still persists. I then see magma flowing into the pillar at a rate faster than before. I need to go now!

I run as fast as my legs can take me, not caring if I'm risking the shattering of my bones. Better a broken leg than drowning in molten rock. I look down and the threat to my life is closer than it was when I started running. It's rising faster than I can run up the stairs! Am I going to die here? Have I failed?

Elijah, no! You can make it through this! Just think of a way to get away from the magma! Think, think, think!

I can hear sizzling. I take a second to look back down. Too close! Way too close! An idea comes to my head but I'm not sure whether it will work or not…

Dammit, Elijah! Now's not the time to doubt yourself! I point my palms downward and look upwards. I channel my magic to my hands and shoot fire downwards. It does nothing but burn the bottom of my pants. I need more power! I close my eyes and concentrate but I don't feel my feet lifting off the ground. Come on, Elijah, put more into it!

I break my concentration for a second only to see that the Lava's almost touching me! I have to get away now! Do it now, Elijah! I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die, _I don't wanna die_!

The feeling of air pushing against my face overrides all of my senses. I don't feel the heat anymore. I can't even feel the ground under my feet anymore! I open my eyes and see the darkness going away as I come closer and closer to the top. I look down. I can't believe it…

It worked! My stupid idea worked! I'm flying! The magma's still fast but it's not catching up. I'm only slightly faster but I'm safe as long as I can keep this speed up. The area shakes once more. I look down to see if the magma is overflowing at a faster rate but there's no change. I look up and see that pieces of rubble and rock are falling from the sky.

A relatively tiny piece becomes the first to reach me, grazing my cheek and making me flinch. That flinch causes my control over my flight to spiral downwards. Literally. In my panic, my hands move and cause my to fly uncontrollably. I hurriedly try to correct it but it just makes things worse. The world is spinning. Where am I? Who am I? What am I doing?

After a lot of struggling, I finally manage to slow myself down just in time to—

"_AHH_!!!"

I can't help but let out a scream as my nose nearly touches the deep pool of molten rock. I quickly point my palms at the lava to get away and keep my face from melting off. I sigh in relief as I see the bright red liquid slowly go farther away. It's still rising up but it still has the same speed as before. I only need to go faster than that.

However, that relief turns out to be fleeting as a large piece of rubble shoots straight down right in front of my face. I try my damnedest not to panic a second time. I take a few deep breaths to calm my dead heart before looking up to see if there's more. Now, I wish I didn't do that because… well…

_THERE'S A HUGE BOULDER COMING MY WAY!!_

It's too big for me to fly around in time and I het it's also too big for my knife beams to cut through. It's too close and it probably already reached terminal velocity. At this rate, I'm going to die in about ten seconds. What do I do in this situation!? I don't wanna die here of all places! Not after I just escaped death multiple times. How do I escape death this time? How!?

I can only think of one idea. This is going to be even more stupid than the last idea, though. I stop shooting out fire from my palms for a moment, slowing me down. I bend my elbows and point my fingertips upwards. I clench my fist and try to bring out more power than before. I contain them for a moment in my arms before explosively letting them out through my elbows, launching me towards the boulder like a rocket. I pull my right arm back, being careful as to keep my elbow pointed directly downwards. I store even more power in my right arm, waiting for the right moment…

Which is now! I make the fire shooting through my right elbow burn even more, causing my right fist to shoot rapidly upwards. The impact causes a loud sound that echoes throughout the area. The boulder stops moving downwards. My hand is broken beyond recognition but the damn rock seems to have suffered no damage. Did I fail to do anything? After all that?

I then hear a tiny cracking noise. I see a small crack on the area where my fist connected with the boulder. Another crack shows up. And another. And another. Multiple fissures show up before expanding and engulfing the large boulder. Not soon after, the rock shatters into multiple tiny pieces too little to do any major damage.

It worked! I'm on fire, baby! Genius in the making right here! That's right! I—_ forgot that I'm not flying!_

I manage to muster enough power to make me shoot up using only one hand. I wouldn't risk doing it with my feet. I might shoot downwards instead. I smell the lava once more as I almost come in contact with it once more. I fly upwards soon after. It should be smooth sailing from here on out.

I soon see the very top of the pillar. I look upwards and see only the ceiling. I guess that means I have to land there. I touch down before lowering my body to the ground. I'm not going to get caught off guard by a quake again. Sure enough, the place shakes but this time, I'm prepared for it. I look towards the lava, expecting it to rise faster but instead, it stops. I did it! I survived! I reached the top! I eacaped death once again!

I then hear rock scraping against rock. I run towards where the source should be. I see a platform made out of rock rise out from under the magma. The molten rock just flows off of it as it continues to elevate. It then stops in front of me. I look forward and see another platform on the other side with a door in the wall and the one that came out of the lava seems to be a bridge between the pillar and the door.

This must mean I'm done. I made through the shortcut. Wiseman should be right through that door. My questions are about to be answered! Mari, just wait for me. I'm coming to get you!

Suddenly, my senses scream at me to move. I jump back just in time to see a blade being impaled into the ground where I stood just nanoseconds ago.

Who dares get in between me and Mari!?

I don't bother looking up to see what just tried to kill me. I don't need to, I already know. I pull my knife out of its sheath and swing it in the direction of the sword's wielder. It flapped its annoyingly bright wings to simultaneously pull its weapon out of the floor and get away from my slash.

You're not getting away that easily!

I kick off of the ground and launch my body towards the fleeing bird. I raise my blade and make it glow red. That thing is going to be red as well soon enough. I swing my blade down at the illusion but it manages to block with its own blade. Dammit! Well, if I can't cut it now, I'll just bring it to the ground to make it so that I can. I quickly bring my knife above my head once again and grab the handle with both hands. I swing it down with all my strength, causing the two blades to clash and sending the bird crashing into the ground, creating a crater.

I've got you now!

To keep it from recovering too quickly, I send a fire beam down. I see smoke coming out of the bird as the attack melts through its armor and burns its skin. That should keep it reeling for a bit longer. I then turn my body so that the bottom of my feet are pointing towards the ceiling. I send jets of flame shooting out of them both, accelerating me towards my target. My red hot knife slices through its torso so easily that I can barely feel it searing through steel and flesh. My movement comes to a stop as my weapon buries into the stone ground. However…

… I'm not done yet.

I managed to miss the heart. Its breath is shallow but its still alive enough to make this next part fun. I kick its body to flip it over. I grab its left wing and put my knife against the place where it meets the back. I then burn through its shoulder blade to remove the mechanical limb. It looks robotic but it bleeds and the bird's cries of pain are proof enough of it being a biological body part.

Speaking of those cries of pain… Music to my ears. Let's see how much louder it can squeal.

Just before I cut a circle around the wing, I stop and pull my knife out before immediately stabbing it into the base of the other wing, eliciting another pained scream. It yells even louder as I saw around its wing in the same manner as the other one. Once again, I stop before completely removing it, giving the bird a temporary break from torture.

Here comes the really fun part. I sheathe my knife before picking the illusion up by its badly injured wings. Its groans and yelps sound perfect. I walk towards the side of the bridge and hang the bird over the edge. The lava's not too far below, licking at the bird's feet, making it lift its legs up to keep them from burning. I place a foot between its wings and start pushing down.

It starts screaming louder due to its wings being torn out of its back and its feet being slowly submerged into the molten rock. The sound is so good. This is the best reaction I've ever had.

Before I can get a good laugh out, the wings are now only just hanging on by strings of muscles and tendons and everything below the bird's knees has melted. It has stopped screaming and is now just panting, barely able to breathe anymore. Every good thing has to come to an end, I guess. I was having such fun too. With one final push, I remove the bird from its wings and watch as its body melts in the lava. I throw away the wings as well. I have no use for them. Souls then come flying out of where the body used to be and fly into my collection talisman. How many do I have now? Nevermind, it doesn't matter at the moment.

Now, where was I? Oh, right, Mari! I run towards the door. I can't wait anymore! However, I stop before I reach the door. I just saw something in the corner of my eye. I look towards what caught my attention and see two chests beside each other. Talk about lucky! I approach the boxes and reel my fist back. I then use my powers to strengthen my attack as I punch both lids off with one swing. I take a look at the first one and see five bottles of green liquid. I look inside the second one and once again see five bottles but with blue liquid. This is quite a haul! I think there's just enough space on my waist to chain all of these onto. I'm not that injured so I can save everything up for later. I chain all of them onto my belt and get back on track.

I charge my fist up once again as I walk towards the door. Now, I can get the answers I want. I punch the door open and quickly enter inside. I wait for the door to close but at that moment, the room immediately becomes pitch dark. I can't see anything, not even my hands and my body. Only the glowing hole in my chest. It doesn't even glow bright enough to shine some light on the rest of my torso.

"I see you passed my test," I hear that whispering voice comment, "That is good news. I would have been disappointed had you died in the previous trial."

"Unfortunately for you, I lived. Now, give me the answers you owe me."

"Not yet, Wicked."

"Hey! I went through your damned shortcut. I deserve the reward!"

"Young fool. A shortcut is not the end. It is merely a shorter path towards it."

"I don't need your lectures!"

"You _will __listen_ to me if you want answers!" he raises his voice at me.

But… unfortunately for me, he's the one in charge. If he so chose it, I would've been rejected at the doorstep. This is his house and now that I'm back to my senses, I have to abide by his rules

"What else do you want?" I ask whilst grinding my teeth together to keep myself from snapping once more.

"One final trial awaits you, Wicked." I'm really starting to hate that name. "Survive through it and you'll come out with answers to questions you never had the thought of asking."

"Wha—"

Before I can finish asking, the world suddenly goes white, blinding me.


	10. Elijah

I can sense that the pure brightness is finally starting to dissipate. I slowly bring my arm down to uncover my eyes. I blink my eyes a few times to get used to my sight again.

This place… This isn't the labyrinth. I know this place. This is the high school I went to. This is where I first met—

"Hey, Eli!"

That voice. That's—

"Mari! What took you so long?"

I turn around to see a boy with unkempt dark hair running to a girl with long blond hair in a ponytail.

"Sorry. I got held up. Mom needed help with something."

"There's no need to apologize. I'd be happy even if you showed up two hours late."

"Maybe I should do that."

"Don't you dare."

"Oh? But I thought you said you'd be fine with that."

"You…"

This scene… I'm seeing a younger version of myself talking to a younger version of my girlfriend. How is this happening? Why is this happening?

Wait! I remember this day. We wanted to go on a date after meeting at the school gates but we were stopped by—

"Hey there, chef boy."

—an idiot.

"Eli, is he a friend of yours?"

"I don't know who he is. Let's go."

"Don't be so cold, chef boy. We had so much fun together."

"What do you want?"

"I saw you talking to this hottie over here. Mind introducing us?"

"We were just leaving. We don't have time for that."

"Don't be like that, chef boy. I can take her to wherever you want to go next time. She'll be going with me, though."

Ah, yes. I remember this scene clearly. This idiot thought that just because he was bigger and stronger, he can push me around. Boy, did Mari give him quite a talking to. Beautiful and girly but at the same time, strong and independent. I'm lucky she fell for me out of all people.

The girl walked towards the bigger boy…

… but before she could, the younger me stopped her.

This was not how I remembered this. I stayed behind and watched as he got his pride ripped apart by Mari. Why am I walking towards him?

The younger me cocks a fist back and hits the bully square on the jaw, knocking him out. What's happening? I wasn't even close to being capable of this when I was younger.

However, it seems the smaller boy isn't done yet. He walks towards the unconscious kid…

… and proceeds to repeatedly stomp on his head.

What's happening? I didn't do any of this. This didn't happen. This shouldn't be happening. Why is it happening?

The younger me kicks harder and harder without any signs of getting tired. Even worse, he has a wicked grin on his face. He's enjoying this.

The poor kid is bleeding now. His skull is caving in. A crowd is starting to form. All of them share the same expression. One of disgust and terror. Mari is making the same face. Except her eyes are showing shock as well.

This isn't supposed to happen. It didn't happen. This is not me. I never did this.

"Hey, stop!" I yell at my younger self. I step forward to physically stop him but I step on something hard and wet. I look down and—

I try to force down the liquid that's threatening to come up my throat. I step back. I just stepped on the bully's bleeding skull. While looking down, I see another thing that's just as unbelievable. My body is made out of living flesh rather than the rotting body I was getting used to. I'm wearing my old uniform but it's covered in blood. I somehow switched places with my younger self.

I turn around and see Mari's face. She's crying and shaking in terror.

"Mari, this isn't how it looks like," I try to calm her down.

However, it seems like she didn't hear a word. She slowly steps away from me.

"Hear me out," I try to talk to her again, this time, trying to reach my arm out to her.

She screams and turns around to run away but she trips on her own feet. She turns to face me and yells, "Stay away!"

"Mari—"

"I said stay away, you monster!"

"No… This isn't supposed to happen… I'm not a monster, Mari. I didn't want this…" I keep talking but nothing seems to get through to her. I don't know what to do or what to say to calm her down and it's really frustrating. "I didn't want this!"

Suddenly, I hear someone laughing. Who is it and what's so funny!? I turn to the source of the sound and—

"What's funny is how you're way too good at lying to yourself."

Standing across me is my Wicked body. He has a disturbing grin on his face. The same one I saw on my younger self. Wait! Did I say my thoughts out loud?

"No, but I can still hear you loud and clear."

"W-what? How?"

"How, you ask?" he starts as he chuckkes darkly and starts walking slowly towards me, "Well, it's because your thoughts are also my thoughts. After all…"

My body freezes. Even my breath stops. My eyelids stay still, refusing to blink. The reason is staring at me in the eyes. All of a sudden, the disturbing grin I keep seeing is now right in front of my face. He grabs my shoulder, he leans into my ear, and he whispers, "I am you, and you are me." He then laughs maniacally before putting his face close to mine again. "That expression you're making is very amusing."

He then walks away from me and towards the downed dying boy.

"W-what are you doing?"

"I'm doing you a favor," he replies with a dark voice as he raises his foot over the boy's head.

My vision blacks out for a quick second. I then find myself back in my Wicked body with my foot raised. My first instinct is to jump away but I can't. I can't move my body. What's happening?

My foot then stomps down on the kid's already broken skull. My body then raises the foot up and stomps down again. And again. And again.

I try to stop it but my body won't listen. It's like I'm merely a spectator watching through someone else's eyes. But these eyes are mine. This body is mine. I should be able to control it so why can't I? Why can't I stop? Stop!

"Instead of trying to stop, why not enjoy the moment?" my lips move on its own and my voice comes out.

What the hell do you mean by that!? How could I enjoy this!?

"You should know the answer to that," my body replies once more before kicking the boy's midsection. At this rate, the kid's body won't even look human anymore.

I don't want this… I never wanted this! Just stop!

To my surprise, my body actually stops. I try to move but it seems like I'm still not the one in control.

"You're lying to yourself again. This is what you wanted from the beginning, the power to beat this asshole to a pulp."

… What? No… That's wrong! I wanted to leave as soon as possible, not this…

"You're way too good at lying to yourself. You always hated him. You always wanted to kill him."

No! You're lying! You know nothing about me!

"Didn't I tell you? I am you. I know everything about you. I know how you're always full of hate. I know how you always suppress your innermost desires. I know how you always try to forget your other side."

That's not true… I know I get really angry at times but I've never done this…

"What I'm saying is the truth and you know it. What you don't know, however, is that suppression and forgetting are only conveniences, not virtues. You try to be a good guy, helping all these people, to forget about the demon inside you. However, you never tried to kill it. You let it rot and fester in the back of your head as you tried to make yourself an angel. This demonic power did not create the demon, it only provided an opportunity for the demon to finally come out and revel in—"

"STOP!!"

I open my eyes to find myself staring into my red dead eyes once more. His expression is still of a predator that has found its meal.

"It seems you still refuse to believe," he starts, "No matter, I'll just try harder in convincing you."

He snaps his hands and the scenery changes once more. Once again, I'm in my dead body looking at a younger version of myself. Only this time, I'm even younger, no older than twelve years old. This is my parents' home. I never had the best relationship with them but I never truly hated them… Is that really the case? Stop. You're doubting yourself, Elijah. At this rate, he'll get you.

I hear footsteps coming towards us. It's my overweight father. It looks and smells like he's been drinking again. He always used to drink during daytime but not enough for him to be really drunk. He saved most of his booze for when his friends come over, in other words, every other night.

"Boy, prepare the meals. People are coming over."

Ever since my parents divorced, my father always bought food from other places until I became interested in cooking. Ever since then, he always made me cook and forced me to do so when I didn't want to. Due to that, I gained many scars and burn marks that lasted well into my adulthood with some still being there when I died.

"Dad… I h-have other plans for today…"

"Huh? What did you say?"

"I… have other plans… for today…"

"Speak up, boy, before I get tired of you!"

"I already have plans for today."

I wish I could say I remember this day but this kind of scene happened way too often for one of these days to be particularly memorable.

"Cancel them. My friends are coming and I'll be damned if I didn't have food to go with the drinks."

"Can't you just get some food delivered?"

"Are you going against me, boy?"

"No, but—"

"Then go and cook. They'll be here in a few hours. I expect you to get this house cleaned up by then too. You'll also be serving us like always. I shouldn't even have to tell you this for you to know what to do."

My father then walks away and sits on his chair. The other me looks so dejected. He trudges into the kitchen where he grabs a knife.

Wait! I always grabbed the ingredients first before getting the knife. I would even have a mental checklist and a headcount of all the food before going into the cooking. Why am I bringing a knife out?

Instead of looking through the pantry or bringing out a cutting board, the kid walks towards my father who looks as confused and surprised as I am.

"What are you doing, boy?"

Without a word, my younger self plunges the knife into the man's gut.

My vision goes black again. The darkness subsides and I find myself with my hands on the knife digging into my father. I try to pull it out but once again, I'm not in control.

"… Y-you…" the man manages to get out before coughing blood on my face.

I hear myself laughing before my body pulls the knife out only to stab it in his shoulder. My father cries out in pain which leads to another bloody coughing fit. The blade is then pulled out again and plunged in again and again and again. The man stops making any sound at some point. He no longer has the energy to do so. He's dying, if not dead. I keep trying to stop myself from doing this but I can't take control over my own young body. I look into my father's eyes only to see that there's no light remaining in them anymore.

Maybe this is fine. He was a bad person after all. He only ever called me his son in front of strangers. He always makes sure to get his way even if it means forcing me to do things against my will. I only got to be free from him when I graduated high school and the best days of my life started. Maybe this is what I—

No! I'm not that person! He might have been a bad parent but I'm only the way I am because of him. I don't regret being his son and I definitely do not want him dead.

"When will you stop trying to feed yourself lies?" my mouth speaks.

These aren't lies. This is how I truly feel and you can't change that.

"I'm not trying to change anything. I'm merely helping you realize your actual true feelings."

Keep trying. You won't win this.

"Is that a challenge? Alright, here."

My body snaps its fingers and my surroundings go dark once again. Before the blackness could subside, I already hear a voice calling out to me.

"Elijah, l-l-look, I h-had no choice."

My vision returns to me and I see a man with a bald head and eyes full of terror in front of me. I'm grabbing his wrist and the hand attached to it is holding onto a stack of money…

… I… I remember this…

"Had no choice? James, you could've paid off your debt through literally anything else."

"I h-had to quickly pay them or they'll just keep adding on to the debt with the ridiculous interest—"

"_So you sold the engagement ring I bought?_"

"L-look, I'm sorry. I'll pay you back, I swear!"

"You'll pay me back? You've been my best friend for years, James, and you've never paid me back once. I let you go all those other times because they were only small amounts but I saved up for two years just to buy her this. How are you going to pay for this? _How!?_"

"I… don't know… but—"

Before he could say anything else, my body backhands his face, sending him sprawling to the ground.

I never did this but… I was tempted to…

"Elijah, please—"

I kick his stomach, knocking the wind out of his lungs and preventing any more words to come out of his mouth. While he's recovering, I bend down and grab his neck. Slowly, I raise him up to a standing position before raising his feet off the ground. He kicks around, trying to get out but it's no use. I slam his back onto the wall before putting his feet on the floor again. My hand is still around his neck and his eyes are more fearful than before. I cock a fist back and connect it with his nose, breaking it. I then hit his cheek, causing one of his teeth to fly out. I plant a hook on his temple, causing his world to spin. I punch his forehead, causing it to bleed.

He… He deserves this. I trusted him. He was there even before Mari came into the picture. I thought we'd be best friends until the end but he did this to me. I risked being in debt just to get that ring and he stole it from right under my nose just to pay his debt off. I forgave him for it back then but things were never the same between us. How could it be? I worked for several more years to make enough money to buy another one. I never accepted his money. How could I accept anything from the man who took from me? He deserves this. He—

Stop! He was my friend until the end. I didn't accept his money because he was already having enough financial troubles. He tried to help me and that's enough for me to forgive him. He was going to be the best man at the wedding. Stop putting these thoughts in my head! Stop making me feel things that I never felt! Stop making me want to do things I never wanted to! Stop trying to trick me!

The world goes dark again. Right in front of me is my Wicked body. Instead of a disturbing grin, he looks unamused, annoyed, almost angry.

"Denying that part of yourself. How typical of you."

"That's not me…"

"You refuse to acknowledge the reason why you're a Wicked in the first place."

"That's not me."

"You try to convince yourself that—"

"That's not me!"

I've had enough. I cock a fist back and punch his annoying face, making him reel back in pain. It doesn't matter if I'm not as strong in my human body, that punch was still very satisfying.

Suddenly, the world around me turns pitch black. The only things visible are me and my Wicked body. My body then glows bright red, as if burning from the inside but I don't feel any pain. I don't even feel the slightest bit hot. My skin burns off into ashes, leaving behind the rotting body that I've been using for this past… days? Weeks? I don't even know anymore.

I look to the one who was using my body only to find him glowing bright red too. The body burns up in raging flames before burning the darkness surrounding us. I shield my eyes as the glow becomes too bright.

I open my eyes to an entirely new environment. I'm in a dark and dreary room with dull brick walls that had unlit torches. There are small dusty windows near the ceiling that let sunlight in. There's barely anything here. It almost looks like a cage. A dungeon.

My body then freezes up as I hear a low growl behind me. I slowly turn around but the only things I see are four legs. I slowly walk backward and just as look up until I see what manner of creature those legs belong to.

Its body is covered in fiery orange fur with black stripes on its back. Its head looks like that of a wolf but it lacks noticeable ears. Its eyes are green and its pupils are slitted. Its mouth is lined with long and sharp fangs with the canines being longer than the others and there are fleshy flaps on the sides of its mouth acting like cheeks. Sharp spikes line its spine and tail. While its hind legs are underneath its body, its front legs are at its sides. All of its toes are clawed. Underneath its fur, I can see oddly wrinkly skin. This isn't an oversized mammal. This is an oversized reptile made to look like a mammal.

"Congratulations on breaking my illusion, Wicked. Welcome to the final stage," that weak, whispering voice appears again.

"What is this?"

"I've seen many interesting creatures in the Kingdom of Man over the ages. This is one that I've taken and imbued with powers that even the Archangels fear to make it into a great beast that can kill most beings in Creation. I call it Almuftaras. May the Creator have mercy on you."


	11. Wiseman

"I call it Almuftaras. May the Creator have mercy on you."

The large beast roars. Not a good sign. It then bends its legs as it stares directly at my eyes, silently telling me I'm dead. That's even more not good. With a great burst of speed, it charges at me with its mouth wide open. That's the worst sign.

I point my palms downward and let out a stream of flames to propel me to the air. It can't get me here… right? I'm far enough away from the ground—

I quickly pull my legs up and put more power into my hands. That thing just stopped its advance and jumped up toward me, almost biting off the lower half of my legs. How can something that big jump so high? I can't stay up here either. I might not know the limit of my magic powers but I know it exists and I can' risk it. This is bad. Really bad.

I then see Almuftaras bend down once more before jumping up, this time, even higher than before. Instead of going further up, I point my palms behind me to get me behind the beast. I have to land. I can't avoid contact with it forever.

I immediately charge my knife with as much magic as I can as I wait for it to land and turn around. I see it do exactly what I wanted it to do. I unleash a blade of fire at it. That has to do some damage. Just in case, I blast two more projectiles at it.

The first one hits it and makes a cloud of smoke. The other two go into the smoke. I hear them make an impact on the beast. Now, to wait for the smoke to clear and finish it—

I hear an enraged roar before seeing Almuftaras run out of the smoke with nothing but burn marks and singed fur on its face. That didn't have any effect!?

Once again, I'm forced to the air but before I can get enough altitude, I see the animal right in front of me with its maw wide open, ready to chew me up. I point my flames at its tongue, causing it to close its mouth. I then point my palms towards the sky to get me to the ground quicker than gravity can. I look upward to see it still falling. Perfect. I make my blade glow bright red before shooting flames out of the soles of my feet. I then put my knife above my head and stab into its belly. The skin offers quite a resistance but, ultimately, my blade makes it in. The animal growls in pain. I try to slice down its abdomen but its flesh is too tough. I have to make an even stronger attack.

I quickly propel myself away from it and watch as Almuftaras fails to land on its feet, therefore, crashing onto the ground. It looks like it will be down on the ground for a few seconds. That should be enough time for me to make my next move.

However, it gets up faster than I expected. I abandon my plans and elect to run away instead but it's too late. Instead of trying to eat me, it uses its claws to wound me. I feel them penetrating my rotting body. The force of the attack sends me flying towards a wall. I then flop to the ground. I still don't feel the pain but I definitely feel weaker. I'm not bleeding either but I can see my broken ribs through my wounds. If I was still alive, this would've killed me.

I see it growling at me but it's oddly keeping its distance. It must've been surprised at me still being alive. I must be the first dead man it has ever come across. Well, I can't complain. I can use its wariness to my advantage. I unhook one of the health potions from my pants before gulping everything down. My broken bones reform and the wounds on my chest close up. I'm fully healed.

Now, time for my next attack.

I power my knife up once again. I see Almuftaras growling at the light but I also see it hesitating. Finally, it seemingly decides that leaving me to do what I want is more dangerous than doing something about it and roars before running toward me. This is exactly what I was expecting. I let it get about five meters away from me before sending the beam I've been charging up at its feet, kicking up a lot of dust and blinding it. It's only temporary but I have enough time.

Seeing its silhouette in the smoke, I jump up on it's back. I cling to its fur to stop me from falling off as it flails around, trying to find me. I slowly crawl over to the back of its head before jumping down toward its snout. I power my weapon up again, causing it to glow brightly. Thanks to the light, the beast finds me but it is too late. I plunge my knife right below it's left eyebrow before slashing downward as I fall down. Its eye bleeds profusely, covering me with the scarlet liquid.

It throws it's head back in pain before going down but I know it'll get up before long. This monster is tough. I need to land a decisive blow and I think I know how to do it.

I charge as much power into my knife as I can in the time it takes for it to get up but I don't think I've put enough power in it yet. I'll have to do something really stupid. I have to use the time it takes for the monster to get near me to further strengthen my attack. I really hate this.

It's now about 10 meters away from me but not yet

7 meters. Still not enough.

5 meters. Just a bit more.

2 meters. A little bit more or I'll die.

Half a meter. Getting there.

I feel the heat coming from its mouth.

Now!

I launch a bright ray of blazing flames at the advancing beast. I missed its head but I manage to hit its body, creating a burnt gash running diagonally from its left shoulder down to its chest. It reels back in pain, giving me the opportunity to continue attacking.

I charge forward and use my hot knife to cut its left leg. It roars once more in pain. It tries to turn around but due to the wound, it's not as fast as it was. I capitalize on it by running to its left leg once more and creating another gash. I look at the wound I just inflicted and notice that it's deeper than the gash made by the flame beam. I see. My powered up weapon is sharper than the projectiles I release.

This time, the beast goes down to the ground, giving me a great window of time to finish it off.

I walk up to it and look around for anywhere I could dig my blade into to kill the beast. The brain and heart cross my mind but that'll just end this too quickly. Should I cut several arteries and watch it struggle as it weakens and bleeds to death? Should I slit its throat and let it suffocate? Should I slice its gut open and disembowel it? Too many choices. How, oh, how will I ever decide.

I know. How about I just—

_Why not enjoy the moment?_

What?

I stop myself. What was I thinking just now? What were those thoughts? Was I—

I hear Almuftaras roar as it gets up. Its wounds, they've healed a bit but one of its eyes is still closed. It raises its paw and before I could react, I get trapped between its limb and the ground. I try to muster my strength but I can't budge it. I look up to see it opening its mouth and moving to bite my head off.

No!

I channel my power all throughout my body to radically raise my body temperature. Its flesh sizzles for a moment before the beast lets out a sound of pain. It reels back, releasing me from its grasp.

I jump away to get some distance but Almuftaras is already going after me. I quickly release a flame beam at its feet to distract it while I think of another plan. Before I could do just that, the beast comes out of the smoke undeterred. It opens its mouth wide, ready to scoop me up into it. Once again, I shoot a jet of flames into its mouth but it appears it has also prepared for that. It closes its mouth and lowers its body to the ground to avoid the fire completely. I point my palms at the ground to get me to the air but before my feet could get off the floor, it swipes its claws at me, making me soar through the air but not in the way I intended.

However, that beast isn't the only one who refuses to do the same things again.

Before I reach the wall, I stab my knife into the floor to slow and eventually stop my movement. Without a moment to waste, I unhook another bottle of green liquid from my pants. I open it and—

Woah!

Before I could drink it, Almuftaras tries to pounce on me. I jump back to avoid it but I unintentionally throw the container up in the air. I try to look around to find where it could've landed only to feel something shattering against the top of my head. My body gets covered in the health potion. Great. One bottle wasted just like that.

Wait a minute. The wounds I just got are closing up. What the hell!? All this time, I could've just applied the potion on my wounds with no pain instead of trying to pour all that bitter liquid down my throat!? That damned Vulgrim! Why didn't he tell me!?

My mind then snaps back into reality as I hear the beast roaring. Once again, it tries to crush me under its paw but I propel myself forward not only to avoid it but also to get behind it to have more time to think of my next plan of attack. I successfully avoid getting crushed and run right below its belly.

However, something else crushes me into the ground: its tail. I forgot it had one. Before I know it, I see Almuftaras jumping up into the air and flipping in the air. I then see the spikes on its back falling towards me. I forgot it had those too.

I quickly blast flames from my palms to propel myself to a standing position before doing the same thing to propel me away from the oncoming attack. I manage to avoid it but the resulting quake renders me off balance. I try to right myself but I see the beast's tail flash across my vision. Not long after, I feel a large wound opening up across my torso. I reel back, not because of the pain but because of the force behind the blow. Why did that not send me off the ground again?

I soon get the answer to my question in the form of Almuftaras quickly turning around and lunging at me with its mouth wide open. I channel my power into my palms but before I could blast anything out of them, I find myself inside its mouth. I push against its top and bottom jaw to keep the maw from shutting close but I find myself struggling to do so. I heat my hands up to force it to spit me out but it merely lets out a groan of pain without weakening.

This is bad. I try to heat both my feet and hands up but it's still not letting up. I'm still losing at the same rate as before. I try to put more and more power into the heat but in response, Almuftaras puts more and more force into its bite even when the heat causes the top of its mouth and its tongue to roast and bleed.

My elbows and knees are now bent at right angles. I can't do this for much longer. I need to do something but what can I do? I'm at the limit of my own strength and my magic is not strong enough to get me out of this.

But… I don't want to die yet.

Not until I find Mari.

Not until I get our knife back from Ulthane.

Not until I prove myself to Camael.

Not until I get answers from Wiseman.

_Not until I beat this damned mutt into a pulp!_

My whole body radiates fiery red light. Soon after, the light turns into a bright ball of flames that expands around me and blows up, forcing Almuftaras to reel back in pain. I fall out of its mouth and onto the ground with a thud.

I try to get up but I find myself trying to find my balance. I feel weak but I don't think it's because of the recent wounds. Normally, I can fight through those just fine. Not only that, I feel a bit lightheaded. What's going on? Was it because of that explosion earlier? How did that even happen?

Wait… Was that the Wrath people kept telling me about? Only one way to find out.

I grab a bottle of blue liquid. Now that I know the potions work even when you apply it to your body, I'm going to do just that and save me from the pain. I take the lid off and pour the liquid down on my head. I feel its effects immediately. I feel my energy filling back up. That means I finally managed to harness a greater power. I need to consult with Vulgrim on how to get even stronger.

Wait a minute. This liquid… It actually tastes sweet. Why did nobody tell me about this!? A tasty drink at this time would've been—

I jump back to avoid the creature's paw trying to crush me. Right. I need to focus on the fight. First, I'll have to buy myself some time… Time that I wouldn't need to buy if I was focused just then.

Instead of running toward me or clawing at me, Almuftaras swings its spiked tail in my direction. I jump to the right and watch it as it just misses me. It then stops and comes for me again as it goes back to the direction it came from. That gives me an idea.

I take my knife and slam it against the oncoming tail. Fortunately, the blade catches onto the gap between two spikes. I grab on for dear life as the tail takes me up and launches me into the air. I look behind me to see the wall approaching rapidly. I point my blade at the direction of the wall and prepare for impact. The knife goes into the wall and my body only pushes it in deeper. Thanks to that, I can stay in this spot without falling. I look down and see the beast looking around, searching for me. Good. Time to think.

How did I do that Wrath thing? Oh, right. It's called Wrath for a reason. I need to get myself mad but how do I do that? What made me angry earlier?

That's right, I don't want to die. Not until I beat this challenge. That doesn't sound quite right. Not until I get past this. Nope. Not quite yet either.

That's right. I want to kill it…

I want to kill it.

I want to kill it.

I want to kill it.

I want to kill it.

_I want to kill it!_

I take my knife out of the wall and land on the ground.

"Looking for me, you damned mutt?"

The beast turns around and roars after seeing me. It lowers its body to the ground but I'm not going to let it do whatever plan that thing has. I charge my weapon with Wrath, making it glow brightly. I throw it to the ceiling above the animal's head. The light catches its attention. The knife abruptly stops in mid-air as if controlled by an unseen force. Out of nowhere, a multitude of knives made out of fire appeared around the original. They all then rained down on the mutt as it struggles and roars in pain.

However, I still haven't had my fill yet.

My weapon returns to my hand as if it had a will of its own. I walk over to the animal. Its body is riddled with holes and it's coughing up blood. It's already dying. Such a shame. I guess I'll have to deliver this next blow before it completely kicks the bucket.

My blade once again glows due to the Wrath being infused into it. The animal notices the light and tries to run after me even in its pathetic condition. I plunge my weapon into the ground and a large blade of fire shoots out of the ground and cuts into the stupid mutt's face. I slice my knife along the floor and the giant blade slices down the animal's body, slicing it in half.

Its guts spill out onto the floor as blood flows out from inside its body like a river. As with all good things, the view doesn't last. Its body dissipates into small specks of light as a huge number of souls fly into my amulet. In the place where the body was, there are three bottles. One of blue liquid and two of green. I walk over to them and hook one of the bottles onto my pants. I take the other green one and splash its contents onto my body, healing whatever injuries I have left. I open the last bottle and drink it until the very last drop. The energy I lost during the final stretch of the battle returns. That was fun.

Suddenly, my vision fills with the color white. Before I could question it, a new location starts appearing. I'm in a smaller hexagonal room, lit both by torches and stained glass windows depicting stars.

"Congratulations, Wicked. You have passed my tests."

"You…"

It's that whispering voice again but this time, it didn't come from no direction at all. I can hear it coming from behind me. I turn around and see a white curtain with the shadow of the person behind it. He looks to be sitting down with the left side of his body facing me. He looks like skin and bones and he has a crown over his head of long but frayed hair.

"Tell me, what question do you seek answers to?"

I can complain about everything later. This is the moment I've been waiting for all this time.

"Can you tell me where my fiancée is?"

"So you search for your beloved. A noble task, worthy of praise, but a futile one."

…

Did I hear that right?

"… What… did you say?"

"The person you seek is no longer among the living."

"No… No… That can't be. You lie!"

I run toward that bastard and plunge my hand behind the curtain to grab hold of his throat. However, my hand touches nothing. I look behind the curtain only to see nothing behind it but a brick wall, an empty chair, and a torch.

"I tell no lie. It is not a fitting reward to one who has survived through my labyrinth."

I look toward the source of the voice to find an identical curtain on another side of the room. I walk toward it. It doesn't matter if he teleports or uses clones or illusions, I'm still going to kill him.

"However, I can tell you of a way to bring her back to your side."

"What?"

I stop in my tracks. Is that really possible?

"There is a being of incredible power comparable to that of the Creator. The Creator feared that he may one day challenge his throne. Thus, the Creator chained him and cast him into a pit from which there is no escape. He was cursed to only see a glimpse of freedom when summoned and to only use his power according to the wishes of those who find him. He is called Jinn and his legend is lost to all of Creation barring a select few of which I am included."

"Where do I find him? How do I summon him?"

"Fortunately for you, Wicked, his prison was built in the Kingdom of Man where no Angel nor Demon lived and Man was ignorant to the existence of other beings. Call his name and he will be under your command."

"Where exactly can I find him?"

Wordlessly, he held out his hand and in his palm, a green light golden light appeared. It then flew off his hand, through the window, and toward my face. I close my eyes to shield them from the brightness. Suddenly, the image of a grand castle hidden by a giant circle appeared in my head. I open my eyes again and I get the feeling that I know where to go now.

"I have shown you the answer you seek. I will be looking forward to what you ask of him in the end."

That gets me to raise my eyebrow.

"What do you mean by that?"

"During your trials here, you saw many hurdles including a manifestation of your soul."

"What are you…" Is he talking about that… that horrible illusion? "That wasn't me! That cannot possibly be me! Those were all lies you made to trick me, to make me go insane."

"I have always found denial to be one of the most amusing emotions mortals have. How could people be so blind to the truth that lies right in front of their eyes?" He then laughs as if there's anything to laugh about. "I have the power to deceive senses and perception but I tell no lie. I peered through your soul, Wicked, and I merely showed you what I saw."

"Shut up! Don't lie to me!"

I look behind the curtain so I can get my hands on him but like before, he's no longer there.

"I believe you have seen it for yourself outside of my illusion, " he continues babbling, "Even during your trials in the labyrinth, you have been suppressing your desire to tear your opponents limb from limb. You forcefully wipe your smile off your face and tell yourself that it wasn't you when in actuality, you were being truer to yourself than you have been all your life."

I turn around again and see another curtain on another side of the room. I've had enough of this. I'll get him to shut up one way or another. I infuse my knife with a little bit of Wrath before creating two blades of fire.

"Would you just stop talking!?"

I throw my blade at one of the curtains and the other two shoot out toward the other curtains. My original blade hits nothing. One knife of fire also hits nothing but the other one manages to plunge into flesh, causing that bastard to start squealing in pain with the loudest voice I've ever heard him make. I quickly run over to that curtain and grab him by the neck before pulling him out into the light where I can see him.

He is as thin as I thought. His bones can be seen through his pale gray skin. He is wearing a flimsy faded red coat and an old crown on his head. He does not have eyes but I can feel him staring into mine. His left arm has a deep singed wound on it, indicating where the blade hit him. However, despite screaming so much earlier, he's still smiling.

"So… you decide to… silence me… merely due to the fact… that the words I speak… are not words you… want to hear?" he struggles to get out as my grip on his neck tightens ever so slightly. However, he still keeps that damned smile of his.

"I'm shutting you up because your words are nothing but lies. That part of me does not exist. You're only trying to turn me into someone who I'm not. You're trying to convince me that I'm a monster but I'm not! You're wrong!"

Suddenly, I hear steel plunging into flesh and scraping against steel. Wiseman goes into a coughing fit and blood comes out of his mouth. Despite that, his smile stays on his face.

"Am… I… now…"

I look down and see that my knife is stabbing into Wiseman's stomach. I look to his face again to see that smile again but I can't feel him breathing anymore.

"Hey… Stop trying to trick me… Open your eyes… Wake up… You're not dead… I did not… I did not just kill you… That wasn't me… That wasn't me!"

Suddenly, the ground begins to shake and the walls around me begin to crumble. I drop the body and try to run away but I see a large shadow of something getting closer looming over me and less than a second later, my vision goes black.


	12. Camael II

I wake up to the sound of a raging fire accompanied by the sound of steel banging against steel. I open my eyes to see a stone ceiling adorned with moss and roots. That doesn't look like it belongs to the Labyrinth. Where am I?

I sit up to see several sculpted faces on the wall. On the wall, there is an opening pouring out lava onto a forge and into the floor. I've been here before. This is—

"I see you're awake, lad."

A giant of a man with red hair walks away from an anvil and toward me. Ulthane. That means I'm in his forge. But this place is so far away from the Labyrinth.

"What happened? How did I get here?"

The Maker shrugs his shoulders. "That's what I wanted to ask you. One of my men saw you unconscious and injured just outside Haven. You've been sleeping here for three days."

That doesn't explain anything. I look down at my body. Other than the rotting flesh, which has been there since I got 'revived,' there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with me. I stand up and stretch my body. I don't feel like anything's broken. It looks like I'm completely fine.

"I don't feel injured."

"When you were found, you had one bottle of health potion on you. We used that but you still wouldn't wake up," Ulthane explains, "That's what got me worried. I've seen many things in life, lad, and I have never seen a corpse go into a coma. A power that can do that cannot possibly be good news, so what happened back there?"

I close my eyes to recall the events that happened before I passed out. I completed the shortcut. I got through that damned illusion. I actually managed to use Wrath and defeat Almuftaras. I finally got to meet Wiseman and got my answers. Then, I…

I…

I…

"Are you still in there, lad?" the giant's voice snaps me out of my train of thought.

"Oh, yes, um, I, er…" Calm down, Elijah! "I went into a building and it collapsed on me. I don't know how I got here, though."

Suddenly, his eyes narrow and his voice becomes more serious as he speaks, "Were there any other humans in that building?"

"Nope, just me," I quickly reply. I don't want him to get suspicious of me.

He breathes a sigh of relief. "It has been a long time since those buildings were taken care of. It's not too rare for one of them to suddenly go down. Must've been the shock that kept you asleep. Your body might be Demonic, but your brain still thinks it's human." He then goes back to work.

That's right, I'm still human. No matter how I look like, I'm still human. No matter what powers I have, I'm still human. What happened in there doesn't change anything, I'm still… I'm still…

It's silent now. Just the sound of hammer meeting anchor echoes around the room. Just like the first time I was here…

… and just like the first time I was here, I can't handle it.

"So, what are you working on back there."

Without pausing his task, he answers, "Your knife was a bit melted when you came here. Lad, I don't know how you did it but you managed to burn through the heat resistance enchantment. After I'm done here, I suggest you take this to the person you got this from and ask them for a stronger enchantment." His voice got a bit dark there. It seems he still doesn't like Vulgrim that much. Not that I can blame him. I hate the thought of having to see that Demon again.

It seems my Wrath abilities are a bit too much for my knife, or rather, Vulgrim's knife. I better take this back to him. He did say he could grant me more powers if I gave him enough souls. Hopefully, that includes knife enchantments. That reminds me…

"Before I passed out, I managed to… find out where Mari is." I can't let him know she's dead. I know lots of things I thought were impossible are actually very possible but I don't think resurrection is commonplace.

The sounds of Ulthane's work stops. "Is that so, lad?"

"Yes, I know exactly where I can find her. Thank you for finding her but I can't stay here for long. I have to go and find her as soon as possible so please, fix my knife as quickly as you can."

I don't want to wait here. I need her here. I need her to make me feel like… me. I don't want to descend into madness. I need her. As soon as possible.

"Already done."

Ulthane picks up the knife and tosses it to me. I catch it by the handle so I don't cut anything. Judging by how my skin isn't cooking and the metal isn't glowing, the knife isn't hot anymore. I give it a few practice swings. Doesn't seem like anything has changed. I channel my power into it. The knife glows bright red. Good, my powers haven't weakened yet, although I have to really be serious to be really sure but for now, this is enough.

"Thank you." I turn to walk away but the giant stops me.

"Before you go, do you still have the Bridge Stone?"

Oh, that. I almost forgot that existed, what with everything I went through since I got it. I fish inside my picket and pull it out. Somehow, it's still undamaged after everything that happened. "Yes, I do."

"You can use that to bring her here. We will take care of her," he offers, "I only ask that you continue bringing every human you see here."

"Thank you, and I will."

Ulthane nods his head. "Good luck on your journey, lad."

He then walks in the direction of the room where all the other humans are. That's my cue to leave.

"Good bye."

* * *

After half an hour of walking… I'm lost.

Where the hell was Vulgrim's shop again? Did I take a wrong turn? Did I set out in the wrong direction? The only place I can remember how to get to is the Jinn's prison thanks to this magical mental map or whatever you call it.

Let's see. I don't recognize that building. Nor that one. Not that one either. Then again, all buildings kinda look the same in this apocalyptic world. I can't see Vulgrim's insignia anywhere. Where do I go now?

I then hear someone screaming and someone else moaning, or rather, something. I turn toward the sound and see two Wickeds. Slowly approaching a young woman. I quickly stretch out my arm and point my palm at the small space between her and them. I direct my powers into my palm and shoot out a fireball. Upon impact, the fireball causes a small explosion. The young woman screams as she covers her eyes while the two Wickeds jump back and look at me. Good, I got their attention.

They check me out for a second before charging at me. This shouldn't be a problem. I can dispose of them easily. I unsheath my knife and wait for them to get in my range. No need to use much of my powers. The faster of the two gets within an arm's reach. I pull back my knife and—

_You have been suppressing your desire to tear your opponents limb from limb._

What was tha—

While I was distracted, the Wicked managed to get a bite of my shoulder. I can't help shouting in pain. I watch as tries to chew but ultimately, it spits my rotten flesh out. This damned zombie… Before it can do anything else, I plunge my knife into its lower gut and slice up, spilling whatever was left inside onto the floor. However, it doesn't seem like it's dead yet. Good, more fun to be—

I move my arm to put my knife between the other Wicked's jaws, slicing into its cheeks. I put more force and some heat into the knife and completely cut off its lower jaw. Just in time, the first one gets up and tries to claw at my face. I move my head back to avoid it before sidestepping and slicing the side of its neck. No blood comes out, it just annoys the damn thing even more. It should be expected from a corpse but that doesn't make it any less disappointing. I think I've had as much fun as I possibly can with these two. Time to finish it off.

The jawless one tries to charge at me, ready to attack with its sharp nails. I swing my heated knife and cut both hands off in a single blow. I then grab one of its arms and put my foot on its chest as I push it to the ground. I pull one of the arms off and quickly swing it at the oncoming gutless Wicked. The attack causes it to reel back and while it's doing so, I swing the arm once again at its head, making it go down to the ground. I then throw the arm at its owner, keeping it down.

Finally, I use a bit of Wrath and put my knife above my head with the tip pointing down. Two knives made out of fire appear over the two Wicked's heads. I plunge my knife into the floor, causing the two knives to plunge into the zombies' heads, ending them. Their bodies disappear as a few souls come flying out of their bodies and into my pendant. That's a few more souls to buy powers with.

I turn toward the young woman to see her still at the spot where I found her. Good, she hasn't run away yet. I sheath my weapon and pull out the Bridge Stone. I might not have found Vulgrim but at least I found a human. I walk towards her but she suddenly screams and runs away from me. No! I can't let that happen.

I run toward her as fast as I can to avoid losing her. She looks back at me and gasps. She then trips over a small pile of rubble. I slow down and slowly walk to her. I can't have her thinking I'm out to get her.

"Get away from me!" she shouts.

"Calm down. I'm here to get you to safety."

"Stay away, you monster!"

"Look, I'm not a monster, I'm just—"

"I said get back, Demon!"

"Don't call me a—"

"Somebody help! There's a Demon!"

"_I told you to not call me a Demon!"_I stop myself right before my knife could reach her throat. She looks at me in horror before passing out. I jump back.

What was I about to do?

I then hear slow clapping. I look to the side and see a Demon floating above a glowing carpet.

"Bravo, Elijah. Such a good show," he mocks me.

"Vulgrim…"

Before I do anything else, I touch the young woman's arm with the stone, transporting her to Haven where she'll be safe.

"To what do I owe this visit?" he asks with that disturbing tone of his.

I should get to the point before I plunge my knife into _his_ throat. I show him my knife and ask, "How much will it cost me to strengthen the enchantment on this?"

"The enchantment is already so strong. I believe you'll have to pay me 1,500 souls."

I then take the pendant off my neck and give it to him. "Do I have enough?"

The Demon licks his lips. "You have way more than enough."

He then takes the required souls out of the pendant before consuming them. He then takes my knife with his right hand and conjures a red ball of light on his left. He puts the ball against the knife and the blade absorbs it. He then hands me back the weapon. "Anything else?"

"Five bottles each of health and Wrath potion."

Vulgrim chuckles to himself. "I see you've begun to use Wrath. Wonderful." He consumes more souls before summoning the potions and handing them to me. "Will that be all?"

While attaching the bottles to my pants, I reply, "Any souls left for a power-up?"

"Just enough. You've been very diligent with collecting souls." He seems very pleased. I don't like it.

"Give it to me then."

He consumes a massive amount of souls and sighs in satisfaction. "I should've saved some for dinner." Another ball of red light appears on his palm. He puts the ball against the red hole in my chest. I can feel power coursing through me. This feels… amazing. "There was nothing I could do for how powerful your magic can be since it's already so powerful but I increased the amount of Wrath you have in you. I hope to see you soon."

"Wait, there's one more thing," I stop him from disappearing.

He narrows his eyes at me. "I doubt you have enough souls for whatever it is you want to buy."

"If I don't have enough souls, I'll pay by some other means."

Vulgrim's expression turns into an amused one. "I'm listening."

"My destination is about 200 miles away from here. Do you know of a way to shorten the trip?"

I need to see Mari as soon as possible. It doesn't matter if I have to ask for Vulgrim's help to get me what I need.

"I know just what you need but it'll be quite a huge payment."

"I'll do whatever it takes."

He chuckles once again. He conjures a glass ball on his palm. "Just touch this."

I put my hand on the ball and suddenly, my vision becomes black. Several scenarios then play out. My first encounter with other humans, my meeting with Ulthane, my conversation with Camael, my trials at the Labyrinth, that moment with Wiseman…

My vision returns to normal. I feel dizzy. "What was that?"

"You just paid with a show. Your memories are very entertaining."

"What!? How could you—"

"Do you want to get to where you want or not?"

I shut myself up. It's painful not to do anything but I have to play by his rules. "How do I get there?"

"Just step on the carpet," he instructs as he moved aside and motions to his platform. I walk towards it. I don't really trust him but what else can I do. I step on the carpet and a pale blue light covers me. "I'll be seeing you, Wicked."

* * *

My vision goes white for a second and the next thing I know, I'm in some kind of whacky dimension. I notice I'm standing on a black portal on a stone platform. Across from me is another platform with a black portal on it but in between us is a gap. I don't want to risk falling down the void. I don't know what will happen and I don't want to know.

But the jump is too far for me to make it with my legs. Luckily for me, I have more than just my legs to take me anywhere I want to go.

I point my palms at the ground before shooting jets of flame out of the both of them. My feet lift off the ground slowly until I'm hovering at a nice distance from the ground. I slightly point my palms behind me to propel me forward before pointing them back down once I'm on the opposite side. I slowly weaken my power until my feet touch the ground.

That was easy. Too easy for some kind of wormhole. Oh well, can't complain. I walk toward the portal and my vision goes white again.

* * *

I open my eyes to see yet another city. However, I can feel that I am much closer than before. It shouldn't be long now. I follow my instincts and walk in a certain direction.

This place is very barren. What I meant by that is there are no zombies or Demons around which is really weird. I can't complain, though. This is going to one smooth trip from here on out.

"You! I finally found you!"

I spoke, um, thought too soon. I turn around to see a giant Angel flying in the air. Is that… Camael? Why does he look so angry? Why is he holding a sword of golden flames bigger than my body?

"Um, nice to see you again…" I greet although even I can hear the nervousness in my voice.

Without a word, he suddenly swoops down at me with his sword ready to swing. I jump over it just in time to avoid getting cut. Oddly, my skin isn't burning even though I came close to the flames.

He quickly turns around and says, "I knew you would do this. I should've known better than to trust a Wicked."

He then charges at me once more, this time going for a thrust that could split me in half. I roll to the side and put up a small wall of flames to keep him from making another attack. I then jump back to gain some distance away from him.

"What are you talking about?"

He dashes toward me whilst swinging his enormous sword downward. I go down on one knee and pull out my knife. I put my other hand behind the blade to block it. Thankfully, Camael's sword of flames has a solid core, allowing me to stop the blow.

"Don't play dumb after what you did to the Wiseman."

"Wha…"

"I told you I'd come for your head. I'm only keeping my promise."

This is bad. Really really bad.

I put more strength into my block and manage to push him off. I shoot flames out of my feet to keep me away from him.

"Stop! It's not like that! I—"

"Then what is it like!?" the Angel interrupts, "When the building collapsed, there was only you and the Wiseman in there. I found Wiseman's corpse while you were carried away by a dark-skinned human."

Dark-skinned human? I don't know anyone like that other than some of the people in Haven.

"It wasn't me! I didn't do it!"

"Don't spout lies!"

Camael takes to the air before swooping down. I sidestep out of the way.

"I'm not lying!"

However, it doesn't seem like he's listening. He quickly turns around and swings his sword down. I jump out of the way before ducking under another swing.

"Listen to me—"

Camael grabs me by the neck before flying to the air. I struggle to get out but before I could, he flies back down and slams me onto the ground. I open my eyes to see him pointing his sword at me. I have to get out of his grip. I heat my hands up until his skin starts to sizzle. He groans in pain as he retracts his hand and gets off me. I use this chance to get away again.

"Please, believe me!"

"Who would believe a monster like you?"

"What did you…"

He charges at me and due to that comment, he manages to plunge his large weapon into my abdomen. I feel no pain from it but something hurts.

"You truly are a monster."

I'm not a monster!

"Not only did you kill the Wiseman, but you also try to feed me lies when the truth is plain to see."

I'm not a monster.

"And only an abomination would have a blade of holy fire in them and feel no pain."

"I'm not a monster!"

I put my hands on the sword and push it out of me. I grab my knife and heat it up until it becomes enveloped in flames. I swing my blade at his shoulder but he blocks it with his own. I retract my blade and switch to a reverse grip. I quickly plunge it into his other shoulder before he could swing his blade. I slice down, immobilizing the limb and causing him to drop his sword.

However, the bastard refuses to go down easily. He kicks me away before grabbing the sword with his good arm. I try to charge at him but he cuts across my chest, pushing me back again. I try to lunge at him again but he steps to the side and slices across my back. I turn around only to be met with a foot to the face, making me fly backward.

I open my eyes to see him swooping down at me. I roll to the side before using my flames to propel me to a standing position. Just in time, I put up a block for an incoming downward swing. We spend a second trying to overpower the other before I use Wrath to summon four blades of fire and launch them at him. Each one finds their mark, two on the arm and two on the chest, forcing him to step back. He tries to power through the pain but I force the blades even deeper into his body. Soon enough, the blades burn through to the other side of his body.

Once again, he refuses to go down. Weakly, he tries to pick up the blade but I quickly cut his hand off. He screams in agony as blood spills out of the wound.

"I… I was right about you… You are—"

He slowly goes on his knees as blood seeps out of the hole I created in his throat. That should shut him up. As persistent as ever, he keeps glaring at me until his eyes no longer show any life in them. That shut him up. I am not a…

No…

I…

I'm…

I just…

What have I…

What have I done!?

"AAAAAAHHHH!!"


	13. Wicked

I don't know how long I've been walking. All I know is that I'm close. I'm close to getting my wish. I'm close to ending all this insanity. I just have to keep going. I just have to pray that I don't meet anyone else. I don't know how long I'll last. I don't know what the trigger will be. I don't want to lose myself. But I probably will if I don't get to the Jinn soon.

The buildings have been getting more and more sparse. That's a good sign. No civilization, smaller chance of seeing another human. I reach what seems like what used to be a forest but is now merely a ruined field of stumps and red crystals that shoot out of the ground. Seems like even nature wasn't safe from the apocalypse.

I look around and as I expected, there's no wildlife around. No creature was adaptable enough to get through this mass extinction. I'm surprised some humans survived although I doubt they'd last for much longer if not for Haven…

Haven…

Will I be able to show myself there? After everything I've done? Am I still human? Am I truly nothing but a monster? Was everyone right about me after all? Will Mari really fix me?

I'm tired of thinking. I'm really really tired of thinking. There's not much else to do, though. Not much else other than walk and think and walk and think and walk and think and walk and…

Luckily, I'm nearly there. Very near. I can sense it.

What should I say to the Jinn? Is he like the genies in the stories? Will he twist my words and turn them against me? Should I be really really specific about what I wish for? If so, I should think carefully.

I wish Mari was here… Maybe he'll just summon whatever is left of her body.

I wish Mari was here alive. Are Wickeds like me considered alive? I would personally consider us undead but who knows what these creatures think. I can't have the possibility of her ending up like me.

I wish Mari was here like how she was before she died. That sounds about right— Wait! Maybe he'll just reenact her moment of death right in front of me.

I wish for Mari to be revived as a human, alive and well. That doesn't seem to have any loopholes that can be taken advantage of. I'm going to say that, show her the knife before she panics, and everything will be…

Will everything really be fine? We would still be in this post-apocalyptic world. I could send her to Haven but again, would I be accepted there? I'm technically no longer human no matter how human I feel…

And at the moment… I don't feel very human…

I'm tired of thinking. I'm really really tired of thinking. There's not much else to do, though. Not much else other than walk and think and walk and think and walk and think and walk and…

Will summoning the Jinn really be that simple? Can I really just call his name and get my wish? Will there be no trial or Labyrinth or anything like that? The visions the Wiseman gave me gave no indication of a trial or Labyrinth or anything like that.

Will there be a guardian like Almuftaras? Just because there's no Labyrinth doesn't mean a creature can't be summoned. How big will it be? How strong will it be? What powers will it have? How would it behave? Will there be a weakness to exploit? What would it look like?

What if it was a he or a she? How long can I fight it without losing it? How will I kill it? How slow will I kill it? How will I ever claim myself to be human if…

I'm tired of thinking. I'm really really tired of thinking. There's not much else to do, though. Not much else other than walk and think and walk and think and walk and think and walk and…

Wait… My Jinn senses are tingling. I'm here!

But there's nothing around. Not even stumps or Demonic crystals around. Just one big clearing. Where's that giant castle underneath a giant circle? What even is that giant circle? I look around and notice something.

The clearing is circular. The nearest stumps and crystals are as far away from the center as each other. Could it be?

I use a bit of Wrath to enhance my powers. I'm going to need to raise hell if I'm ever going to see the Jinn. I focus on the magic flowing through me and—

"Top of the morning to you, chap. Do you come here often?"

What? Someone else is here? I didn't hear any footsteps or any sound that would indicate the presence of another being here. I turn around and—

"Is something wrong? You look like you just saw a ghost."

It's… It's another Wicked… A Wicked that can speak… And he's riding a floating top hat!

"W-who are you and what are you doing here?"

"I believe I asked you first but it seems only fair considering that I did startle you," he begins as he sets his feet and cane on the ground and puts his hat on top of his head before bowing, "My name is Killington. Enchanted to meet you."

"I… am Elijah…" I don't really want to let him know my name but… he's the first one to show some manners so…

His eyes flash with recognition. "I see. You're_ that_ Elijah." His smile then widens. It's… very creepy. "Vulgrim has told me so much about you."

"Vulgrim? How do you know…" I trail off as memories flash inside my mind. "You… You're _that _Killington."

"Ah, so you have heard about me?" he asks, seemingly amused, "I hope you've been hearing only wonderful things about me because I've been hearing only wonderful things about you."

"W-what kind of things?"

Instead of answering, he chuckles darkly to himself. "Tell me, chap, do you enjoy causing pain and agony?"

"What are you…"

"I have always loved causing glorious chaos, even before I gained my powers. Was it not the same for you?"

"I—"

"After being given a wonderful second chance at life, I wasted no time putting my new gifts to use. I'm ashamed to say that it was so intoxicating that I just could not contain myself. I slaughtered all those that had the unfortunate fate of crossing paths with me. None could stand above me and I was free to shed blood to my heart's content. Am I ringing any bells?"

"No, I—"

"Fortunately, I grew weary of, how should I say it…" He grabs his chin in thought. That disturbing grin then returns. "… stepping on ants and I snapped out of that awful trance. As if luck was smiling upon me, I stumbled upon a wonderful place where my specific set of skills were needed. I was hired to face more sophisticated adversaries and I became the new head amongst those who were employed. You should come to visit. I recommend it. It's a good place to relax and let loose."

"I… I'm not like that!"

"Vulgrim was right, you are out of touch with yourself," he says with mock pity, "Not to worry, I have the perfect cure. Fancy a spar, Elijah?"

I open my mouth to say no but before the word can come out, he picks his cane up and thrusts it at my face. I move my head to the side as the tip lights up with a bright red light. Does he have the same powers as I do?

I take unsheath my knife and use it to block a sideway swing. I push the cane away and try to put some distance between me and him. He grabs his top hat and throws it at me. Somehow, it spins and comes at me at a rapid rate. I meet it with my blade and see sparks flying due to the exchange. The hats edges… they've been sharpened. It stops pushing against my knife and goes back to its owner. I use the chance to charge up for a blade beam but his hat suddenly enlarges and covers him before disappearing. I then feel something sharp piercing my left shoulder from the back. I look at the wound and see the tip of Killington's cane sticking out of my body.

"You have to be faster, chap. At this rate, our meeting will come to a tragically premature end."

I dash forward and unleash my beam as I turn around. He easily deflects it with his cane. I charge at him, sidestepping to avoid an oncoming thrust to the chest on the way. I swing my knife toward his neck but he parries it with his hat. I pull my knife back but before I can swing it again, he throws his hat at me. I bend backward to avoid it. I go back to my original position only to see his can coming at my chest. I jump back to avoid it only to feel something digging into my back. I gasp in my surprise for a second but in that second, Killington whacks me across the jaw with a force strong enough to spin me around as I fall face-first to the ground. He steps on the back of my head and takes his hat out of my back.

"Were you always this helpless? If so, I do wonder how you survived in this cruel world."

I grit my teeth. This guy is starting to get on my nerves. I push myself off of the ground as he steps away from me. I quickly charge my knife with energy and immediately unleash it with an upward slash. Without wasting a second, I send out another beam whilst slashing downward. Unfortunately, he nonchalantly avoids them both before charging at me with a speed I didn't expect him to have. I see him going in for a forward thrust so I move my body to the side before stabbing my knife into his stomach. He makes a gasp a gurgling sound after stopping. That's a great sound.

"Ack… That hurts…" That's a really good sound. However, he starts laughing. "I jest." I then feel his cane piercing through my own abdomen. "Surely, you did not assume that I can feel pain when you can't. I'd be disappointed."

I quickly slice through his abdomen to retrieve my blade before running forward. I turn around to see him inspecting the blade. He notices my gaze and smiles.

"No need to worry, 'tis but a flesh wound."

I grind my teeth once more. I'm really starting to hat him. I coat my left fist in flames and run toward him. He calmly moves his head to the aide to avoid my punch but that was just a distraction. I've been charging my knife with power. I unleash a beam at point-blank, causing a small smokescreen. I'm sure that was a direct hit but I'm not going to take any chances. I point my palm at the smoke and shoot jets of fire into it. If the beam didn't get him, surely this fire will. However, through the flames, Killington's cane pierces through my palm and continues forward to my face. I quickly push my palm to the side to avoid getting hit but he uses that chance to throw me off balance by pulling me toward him before impaling his cane into the ground. I try to pull it out but he plants a three punch combo on my face.

"I am also well versed in the art of fisticuffs," he comments before landing another two punches and a left hook.

Okay, that one really pissed me off. I thrust my knife at his face but he catches my wrist just before it can reach.

"If you keep fighting me half-heartedly, I'll have to end this encounter shortly along with your life."

"You want serious, I'll give you serious."

I then shout at the top of my lungs as I pull the cane out of the ground. I then slide it out of my palm before throwing it at its user. He easily sidesteps out of the way to avoid getting impaled by his own weapon before catching it. I use Wrath to summon five knives of fire in the air. I shoot them at him but he dodges three of them and parties the rest away. I send them back at him but he deflects all of them with his cane before throwing his hat at me. I use my knife to catch it from the inside and throw it back at him. He catches it and puts it back on his head with a smirk.

I channel Wrath into my knife and stab it into the ground, causing a giant blade of fire to come out of the ground. Killington gets sliced along the left side of his body but he doesn't show any sign of pain. How annoying. I slice along the ground to make the giant knife chase after him but he easily avoids getting sliced. I take the blade out of the ground and stab it in again to make the giant knife appear beneath Killington but this time, he jumps backward to dodge it. I do it again but he simply avoids getting hit again. I do it again and again and again but he keeps dodging my hits.

"Stay still and die!" I shout.

"That's the spirit!"

I give up on this useless tactic. I quickly crush a bottle of blue liquid over my head. I'm going to need more Wrath to kill this bastard. I feel the strength coming back to me and immediately work on my next move. I shout to the air as I summon six clones of myself made out of flames. I send them against him. He sidesteps and jumps away to avoid the charging clones. One of them manages to get close but he slashes at it, damaging it and keeping it away. One more gets in his range. He raises his cane but another one manages to grab his waist. He removes his hat to cut its head off but one clone grabs the arm holding the weapon. He attempts to stab through it with his cane but the clone he was facing before grabbed that limb. Before he can struggle free, the other clones grab his legs and neck. These clones weren't made to fight. They glow brighter and brighter until they explode in a spectacular fashion. I close my eyes to protect them from the blinding light. I can feel the shockwaves trying to push me off my feet. I struggle to not get carried off by the force. That ought to kill him.

"I would consider that a dirty move but you know what they say, 'All's fair in love and war' and we are in a small war of our own."

I open my eyes to see him with several burnt patches of rotting flesh but otherwise, completely unharmed.

"Impossible!"

"On the contrary, it is clearly very possible, my friend," he states nonchalantly as he brushes his shoulder off. "Were you not saying that you would kill me? If so, you're not making good on your promises."

That took nearly all the Wrath I had… and he just shrugged it off…

He dares to mock me!? Does he take me for a weakling!? I'm really going to kill him…

Kill him…

I'm going to…

…kill him…

_I'm going to kill him!!_

I charge at him whilst shooting out flames from my heels to speed me up. As I approach him, I stop the flames at my feet and shoot them out of my elbows. The flames speed my arms up as I throw a flurry of punches at him. However, he easily dodges and parries each one with his cane. I decide to put all my power behind my right arm. The flames on my left elbow peter out as the ones on my right elbow become bigger and burn brighter. I aim the fist at his jaw. I throw my punch with a speed that even I can barely detect but he still manages to put his hat in between his face and my attack. My fist goes inside the bottom of the hat and not a second later, something hard and fast hits me on the back of the head, causing me to fly forward.

"Abracadabra! Fancy another magic trick?"

He's still mocking me!

"I'll kill you!"

I quickly get back on my feet. This time, I bring my knife out and heat it up as much as I can. I rush at him and bring my weapon down on him. He raises his cane to meet it. I hear a sizzling sound and see a look of confusion on Killington's face. He quickly retracts his weapon. It now has a melted cut nearly reaching the center of its circumference.

This was my plan. If I'm going to get rid of him, I should start by getting rid of his weapons. As for his cane, I'm just going to cut it in half.

I slash at him again but this time, he does not parry. Instead, he sidesteps my blade before piercing his cane through my side. Big mistake! I see the cut I made previously. I grab the cane with my other hand to keep the bastard from ripping it out. I bring my blade down on the cut. It does not cleave it in two, though. He tries to cut me with the edges of his hat but I block it with my blade. Now, I can see the damage I did to the cane. It was close to being cut into two pieces. I bring my elbow down on the weapon, snapping it.

"No! That's been in my possession for ages!"

"Too bad. Now, die!"

I pull his weapon out of my body and heat it up. I thrust it at his side but he moves his body to avoid it. He then uses the remnants of his cane to close the distance and slash at me. I jump back to dodge it. Even though it has been halved, he did start out with a blunt cane and somehow he can slash with it. I doubt a broken cane can change that.

He throws his hat at my face. I bat it away to keep it from coming back at me but somehow, it still returns to its owner who charged at me while I was focused on his weapon. He thrusts his broken cane at my shoulder but I bend back to avoid it. I then thrust my portion of the weapon into his own shoulder. I don't bother pulling it out. He can keep it. I swing my knife at his neck but he blocks it with his hat. I keep pushing against him as my blade melts through the sharp part of his hat but he does not attempt to retrieve it. Instead, we stay in that stalemate for a few seconds.

He looks at me with that shit-eating grin. This arrogant prick mocks me! He'snot even trying to kill me! He's toying with me! I want to kill him! No matter what I do, I can't kill him! Why can't I kill him!? I hate him. I hate him. I hate him. I hate him. I hate him. I hate him. I hate him. I hate him. _I hate him!_

I shout at the top of my lungs as I muster up all the power I can and imbue my blade with it. I then pull back for a moment before slamming down my blade at him. He tries to block it with his hat but it doesn't matter. At the moment of impact, an explosion occurs, this one stronger than the previous. The force manages to send me soaring backward. I can't hear his screams. In fact, I can't hear anything through the loud boom.

The explosion finally subsides. I pick myself up and open my eyes. I see Killington covered in more severe burns than before but…

_That bastard is still standing!!_"Jolly good show, chap. You deserve a standing ovation." He claps his hands. Is he still insulting me!? "If you would excuse me, I must take my leave. I look forward to our next meeting. Farewell."

I run toward him to stop him from running away but he gets on his hat and flies away before I could reach him.

"Come back here and let me kill you!"

He does not seem to hear it. Next time, I'm going to beat the shit out of him and I'm going to savor every single moment of it.

"Hey! Is someone there? Do you need any help?" I hear someone asking from a distance.

I wait for them to appear in sight. I see three of them. One woman and two men. The wan and one of the men seem to be in their 20s while the other man looks to be in his 50s but he still looks relatively fit and healthy. He seems to be the leader of the small group too. Their gazes finally fall on me and they freeze in their tracks.

"Monster!" the woman exclaims.

"Stand back!" the older man commands the other two. He then pulls out a shotgun and points it at my face.

I need to get their trust. I drop my knife to the ground and raise my hands in the air. For the first time ever, somebody lets their guard down albeit slightly. The gun is still pointed at me but I can tell that the man is a bit less tense than before. This is a good sign. Very good. However, I'm going to need to move faster than they can react or else, I won't reach them.

I dash forward as I reach down my pants to grab the item I need. The man pulls the trigger but I easily dodge it. That damned Killington just helped me improve my reaction time with his lightning-fast strikes. I continue running and dash as soon as I get close enough. I find myself behind the group but I don't need to turn around to see that I've done what I wanted to.

I hear the sound of his gun falling to the ground. It is soon followed by the sound of his head hitting the dirt. Finally, his body collapses.

Man, that was satisfying.

I turn around to see horror etched into the faces of the remaining two. They shiver as they freeze in place. Too scared to move, huh? That makes it easier for me. I need to blow off some steam.

I dash forward again and grab the man by the neck. The woman falls to the ground but suddenly, she gets enveloped by a bright light before disappearing. I look at the spot where she just was and find the Bridge Stone on the ground. I must've dropped it while reaching for my other knife.

Oh well, I guess I'll just make do with this one. He struggles in my grip but he's too weak to escape. I'm going to take my time with him.

* * *

A dark-skinned man wearing an orange hood walks toward a red-haired giant working on a portal in the center of a room.

"Hey, Ulthane," he greets the Maker.

"Jones. I see you've returned," Ulthane greets back, "How was your latest trip?"

"I didn't manage to find anybody, unfortunately," Jones replies.

"I see," the giant nods. While it is not good news, it isn't uncommon for searches to turn up with no results. "May you have better luck with the next trip."

The man nods. "How's the Wicked? Has he woken up yet?"

"He recovered just fine. Again, I thank you for bringing him in. He went back to his search three days ago," answered the Maker.

"That's good—"

A flash of light interrupts him. As the light subsides, they see a woman covered in blood that does not seem to be her own. They look at her and become surprised as they find pure terror in her eyes. Her gaze meets theirs and she immediately screams in fear.

"P-p-p-please, don't kill me!" she begs as she puts her hands in front of her face and closes her eyes.

Jones was the first to act. "Calm down, miss. Nobody's here to hurt you."

However, she keeps on shaking. She doesn't open her eyes not does she relax for even a bit. If anything, she becomes tenser. "Stay away!"

Jones steps back. He did not want to seem like a threat to her.

"What could have happened to her?" Ulthane speaks out both his and Jones' thoughts.

* * *

I let out a sigh as the man finally succumbs to his wounds. It didn't take long after disemboweling him but I guess I should've expected that. His screams did help ease my frustrations, though.

I look down at the weapon in my hands only to see it warped due to the heat. I can't even see the engraving anymore. I don't think I can use it for anything now. Such a waste. I should've gotten it enchanted. I discard the piece of junk and pick up my main knife. Now, what was I doing here?

Oh…

… I have to make this quick. I need to. I can't waste another moment.

I turn to the center of the clearing. I take another bottle of Wrath potion and crush it over my head. I can worry about my injuries later. I then raise my hands as fire covers the ground. I clench my fists and the ground explodes. The smoke clears and I can see a giant golden disc hiding below the ground. Even from here, I can see that it's depicting a castle. This is it. Moment of truth.

"Jinn, uh, wake wakey!" I was never told the magic words.

The ground then shakes. That actually worked. The disc glows and out of the light comes a giant. He has a big and buff build and skin is black and there are glowing red cracks throughout his body akin to lava. His eyes are of a similar color. There are two horns coming out of his forehead and with one curved horn coming out of the back of his head, looking like a ponytail. Around his wrists are chains that bound him to the disk. His lower half is covered by black smoke

His deep loud voice booms as he speaks, "Who has awakened me?"

"I did!" I yelled. I'm not sure if he can hear me down here.

"State your wish." Straight to the point. He probably got tired of trying to break free every time someone calls him.

I can finally get what I want. What I really want. I can't help but smile as I make my wish.

"I wish… for more power so I can squash whoever crosses me!"

The giant points his finger at me. I then feel power flowing into me. So much power. This feels wonderful.

"Your wish has been granted. Begone."

He then disappears in a bright flash of light. I look back as it subsides and the clearing is no longer there. Where there was nothing, there are now stumps and spikes like the rest of the forest. It must've transported somewhere else. Makes sense. You wouldn't want everyone knowing of the location of a creature that can grant any wish because someone told his friends about it.

I open up my palm and point if upward. Time to test my newfound power. I exert enough effort to create a small jet of flame but what comes out is a giant burst. This is perfect. With this, no one can stand above me. Nobody can—

"What is going on here!?" I hear a female voice wondering out loud. Good. My first test subject came to me.

She then comes into view. She's wearing armor all over with a few trinkets here and there. She has glowing white eyes with no pupils. She's also wearing weird makeup. Another weird thing is her red hair that seems to float in the air like a flame. The weirdest thing of all is that she's accompanied by a black being seemingly made out of smoke with four blue glowing eyes and blue glowing markings all over its body.

"Seems like there's only this Wicked around. I doubt that's the one that caused that explosion," the smokey being commented.

"You don't say," the woman sarcastically remarks as she pulls grabs a handle from her waist which then becomes a whip made of metal blades connected together by a red light.

Seems like this'll be more interesting than anticipated. Can't have them underestimating me, though. I heat my knife up and send a beam of fire their way. The woman's eyes widen and the smoke being disappears. She flips to the side to avoid the attack. Now she knows I'm a threat. She dashes toward me and I do the same. I'm getting excited. Really excited.

This should be fun.


End file.
